Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 27, 2026

Cormophyte

Cormophytes (Cormophyta) is a historical term seldom used today for the plants that are differentiated into roots, stems and leaves. These plants differ from thallophytes, whose body is referred to as the thallus, i.e. a simple body not differentiated into leaves and stems. Definitions have varied, notably about whether mosses and liverworts are included.

Last revised
Jun 27, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
132 w
Citations
3
Source
source ↗

Cormophytes (Cormophyta) is a historical term seldom used today for the plants that are differentiated into roots, stems and leaves. These plants differ from thallophytes, whose body is referred to as the thallus, i.e. a simple body not differentiated into leaves and stems. Definitions have varied, notably about whether mosses and liverworts are included.12

Stephan Endlicher, a 19th-century Austrian botanist, divided the vegetable kingdom in 1836 into two groups: the thallophytes were only the algae, lichens and fungi, and the cormophytes were the mosses, liverworts, ferns, Equisitaceae, club mosses and seed plants.3

References

References

  1. Lawrence E. (1999): Henderson's Dictionary of biological terms. Longman Group Ltd., London, ISBN 0-582-22708-9.
  2. "Definition of cormophyte | Dictionary.com". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved 2022-04-28.
  3. Stephan Endlicher (1836–1840). Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita. F. Beck; The Biodiversity Heritage Library.