bryophyte

noun

bryo·​phyte ˈbrī-ə-ˌfīt 

: any of a division (Bryophyta) of nonflowering plants comprising the mosses, liverworts, and hornworts

bryophytic

ˌbrī-ə-ˈfi-tik 

adjective

Examples of bryophyte in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Moss is a special type of plant called a bryophyte. —Steve Bender, Southern Living, 17 Apr. 2024

Along with their cousins liverworts and hornworts, they are known as bryophytes. —Elizabeth Waddington, Treehugger, 28 Feb. 2023

Surprisingly, the team identified 75 different species of bryophytes, including 10 types of liverworts, according to a press release. —Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 1 Nov. 2019

Researchers from the University of Glasgow and the University of Innsbruck recovered at least 75 species of bryophytes, non-vascular plants such as mosses and liverworts, that had been preserved in ice with Otzi. —Jessie Yeung, CNN, 31 Oct. 2019

Around 70 percent of the bryophyte species found in and around Ötzi's high-altitude remains do not grow in the nival zone, the highest region of alpine vegetation which starts around 9,850 feet in this part of the Alps. —Megan Gannon, National Geographic, 30 Oct. 2019

Anthocerotae Anthocerotae, also known as hornworts, are the third type of bryophyte. —Kevin Espiritu For Partselect.com, Good Housekeeping, 29 Aug. 2017

Oishi said humid cities where moss thrives could benefit most from using bryophytes – a collective term for mosses, hornworts and liverworts – as bioindicators, adding moss could be monitored in its natural environment or cultivated for analysis. —Sophie Hares, The Christian Science Monitor, 21 Aug. 2017

Word History

Etymology

bryo- + -phyte, after New Latin Bryophyta, phylum name

Note: The taxon Bryophyta was introduced by the German botanist Alexander Braun (1805-77) as a contribution to Paul Ascherson's Flora der Provinz Brandenburg, der Altmark und des Herzogthums Magdeburg, 1. Abtheilung (Berlin, 1864), p. 22. Though the bryo- in Bryophyta can be taken as a reference to mosses, the specific etymology given by Braun refers to a Greek verb rather than a noun: "Von βρύω, sprossen, keimen, u. φύτον, Pfl., weil die Generation, welche die ganze vegetative Entwicklung repräsentirt, dem Keime der höheren Gewächse entspricht." ("From brýō, to put forth shoots, sprout, and phýton, plant, because the generative process, which represents the entire vegetative development, corresponds to the embryo of higher plants.")

First Known Use

1878, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

bryophyte

noun

bry·​o·​phyte

ˈbrī-ə-ˌfīt

: any of a division of nonflowering green plants comprising the mosses and liverworts