liverwort

Meaning

Noun

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

Related

Similar words

• hepatic

Origin

• From Middle English lyverwort, liverwort, 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.