Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Bryophyte
/ˈbraɪəfaɪt/noun
A moss, liverwort or hornwort: a plant with no true vascular tissue and no roots.
The Greek roots
βρύον
brýon
moss, tree growth
φυτόν
phytón
plant
Literally: “moss plant”
The story of the word
βρύον named moss and the soft growth on trees, and it comes from a verb meaning to swell or teem, the same root that gives embryo. Bryophytes are the plants that never solved plumbing: no vessels, so they stay low, and their sperm still needs a film of water to swim through. That has not held them back, and the peat that Sphagnum builds is acidic enough to keep human bodies recognisable for thousands of years.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
bryologyembryohydrophyte
In a sentence
The bryophytes on the north wall were the only green thing in February.