pteridophyte

pte·rid·o·phyte  (t-rd-ft, tr-d-)

n.

Any of various vascular plants that reproduce by means of spores rather than by seeds, including the ferns and related plants, such as club mosses and horsetails.

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[From New Latin Pteridophyta, former division name : Greek pteris, pterid-, fern; see pteridology + Greek phuton, plant; see -phyte.]

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pte·rido·phytic (t-rd-ftk, tr-d-), pteri·dophy·tous (tr-df-ts) adj.

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pteridophyte  (t-rd-ft, tr-d-)

Any of various vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds; a seedless vascular plant. The pteridophytes include the lycophytes, the horsetails, and the ferns, as well as a small group of related plants called the psilophytes and several extinct phyla.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

pteridophyte - plants having vascular tissue and reproducing by spores nonflowering plant division Pteridophyta, Pteridophyta - containing all the vascular plants that do not bear seeds: ferns, horsetails, club mosses, and whisk ferns; in some classifications considered a subdivision of Tracheophyta fern - any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores fern ally - pteridophytes of other classes than Filicopsida tracheophyte, vascular plant - green plant having a vascular system: ferns, gymnosperms, angiosperms