different between liverwort vs prothallium

English

Wikispecies

Etymology

From Middle English liverwort, lyverwort, from Old English liferwyrt, equivalent to liver +? wort, from the belief that some species looked like livers and were useful for treating the liver medicinally.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?l?v.?.w??t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?l?v.?.w??t/, /?l?v.?.w???t/

Noun

liverwort (countable and uncountable, plural liverworts)

1. A type of bryophyte (includes mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) with a leafy stem or leafless thallus characterized by a dominant gametophyte stage and a lack of stomata on the sporophyte stage of the life cycle.
   • 1929 — Shiv Ram Kashyap, Liverworts of the Western Himalayas and the Panjab Plain, vol. I, p. 1.

     The liverworts are either thallose, without any differentiation into stem and leaves, or leafy.

   • 1985 — W. B. Schofield, Introduction to Bryology, p. 135

     Since the thallus of some liverworts resembled a liver, such plants were considered useful in making a concoction that would aid in curing liver ailments. Hence the name "liver-plant," or liverwort. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that liverworts possess curative properties.

   • 2000 — Barbara Crandall-Stotler & Raymond E. Stotler, "Morphology and classification of the Marchantiophyta". pages 21-70 in A. Jonathan Shaw & Bernard Goffinet (Eds.), Bryophyte Biology, page 21.

     Like other bryophytes, liverworts are small, herbaceous plants of terrestrial ecosystems.

2. A common flowering perennial herb of northern woodlands, Hepatica nobilis (syn. Anemone hepatica), used in traditional European herbal medicine.

Synonyms

• hepatic
• Clevea

Related terms

• lungwort (“pulmonaria”)
• spleenwort (“asplenium”)
• toothwort (“dentaria”)
• woundwort

Translations

See also

• Marchantiophyta

English

Etymology

Latin pro (“forwards”) + Ancient Greek ?????? (thallos, “twig”).

Noun

prothallium (plural prothallia)

1. A plant, usually a pteridophyte, in gametophyte stage in the metagenesis cycle.
2. The young gametophyte of a liverwort or peat moss.

Synonyms

• prothallus