noun
- a plant that reproduces by spores rather than seeds, such as ferns, mosses, algae, and fungi
Usage: botanical
Examples
- Ferns are cryptogams that thrive in moist, shaded environments.
- The forest floor was covered with various cryptogams including mosses and lichens.
- Botanists classify cryptogams separately from flowering plants.
- Many cryptogams can reproduce both sexually through spores and asexually.
- The study of cryptogams requires understanding their unique reproductive cycles.
- Cryptogams were among the first plants to colonize land millions of years ago.