Cryptogams

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Cladonia sp.

The name cryptogams (scientific name Cryptogamae) is a term fairly widely in use as a phrase of convenience, although regarded as an obsolete taxonomic term. A similar case is "lichens".

The name cryptogams refers to 'plants' (in the wide sense of the word) which reproduce by spores. Also in use are names such as "lower plants" and "spore plants". Best known groups of cryptogams are lichens, mosses and ferns.

The name Cryptogamae is from the Greek 'kryptos' ="hidden" and 'gameein' = "to marry". As a group Cryptogamae are the opposite of the Phanerogamae (Greek 'phaneros' = "visible") or Spermatophyta (Greek 'sperma' = "seed" and 'phytum' = "plant"), the seed plants.

Not all so-called "cryptogams" are now treated as part of the plant kingdom, so in contemporary plant systematics it is not a name of a scientifically coherent group. However, all organisms known as cryptogams belong to the field traditionally studied by botanists and all cryptogams have a name governed by the ICBN.

External links

[Cryptogam slideshow]
[Cryptogams] at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
[Dictionary]
[Hutchinson]

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