hornwort

horn·wort  (hôrnwûrt, -wôrt)

n.

Any of several submerged plants of the genus Ceratophyllum, forming branched masses in quiet water and having finely dissected, whorled leaves and minute unisexual flowers.

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[From the apearance of the branched stems.]

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hornwort  (hôrnwûrt, -wôrt)

Any of about 100 species of small bryophyte plants belonging to the phylum Anthocerophyta. Unlike liverworts but like mosses, hornwort sporophytes have stomata. The hornwort gametophyte consists of a low thallus, out of which numerous slender, upright sporophytes tipped with sporangia grow. The sporophyte has a meristem that elongates the sporophyte with new growth, a feature that distinguishes the plant from the other bryophytes. The name of the hornworts was suggested by the hornlike appearance of the sporophytes. See more at bryophyte.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	hornwort - any aquatic plant of the genus Ceratophyllum; forms submerged masses in ponds and slow-flowing streams Ceratophyllum, genus Ceratophyllum - constituting the family Ceratophyllaceae: hornworts aquatic plant, hydrophyte, hydrophytic plant, water plant - a plant that grows partly or wholly in water whether rooted in the mud, as a lotus, or floating without anchorage, as the water hyacinth
	2.	hornwort - liverworts with slender hornlike capsules Anthocerotales, order Anthocerotales - hornworts; liverworts having a thalloid gametophyte; in some classification systems included in the class Hepaticopsida hepatic, liverwort - any of numerous small green nonvascular plants of the class Hepaticopsida growing in wet places and resembling green seaweeds or leafy mosses