liverwort

3 definitions found

liverwort - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Liverwort \Liv"er*wort`\, n. (Bot.)
     1. A ranunculaceous plant (Anemone Hepatica) with pretty
        white or bluish flowers and a three-lobed leaf; -- called
        also squirrel cups.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A flowerless plant (Marchantia polymorpha), having an
        irregularly lobed, spreading, and forking frond.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: From this plant many others of the same order
           (Hepatic[ae]) have been vaguely called liverworts,
           esp. those of the tribe Marchantiace[ae]. See Illust.
           of Hepatica.
           [1913 Webster]

  Hepatica \He*pat"i*ca\, n.; pl. Hepatic[ae]. [NL. See
     Hepatic. So called in allusion to the shape of the lobed
     leaves or fronds.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. (Bot.) A genus of pretty spring flowers closely related to
        Anemone; squirrel cup.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (bot.) Any plant, usually procumbent and mosslike, of the
        cryptogamous class Hepatic[ae]; -- called also scale  moss
         and liverwort. See Hepatic[ae], in the
        Supplement.
        [1913 Webster]

liverwort - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  liverwort
      n 1: any of numerous small green nonvascular plants of the class
           Hepaticopsida growing in wet places and resembling green
           seaweeds or leafy mosses [syn: liverwort, hepatic]