[krip-tuh-gam] 
| any of the Cryptogamia, a former primary division of plants that have no true flowers or seeds and that reproduce by spores, as the ferns, mosses, fungi, and algae. |
| cryp·to·gam (krĭp'tə-gām') n. A member of a formerly recognized taxonomic group that included all seedless plants and plantlike organisms, such as mosses, algae, ferns, and fungi. [From New Latin Cryptogamia, former group name : crypto- + -gamia, -gamy.] cryp'to·gam'ic, cryp·tog'a·mous (-tŏg'ə-məs) adj. |
cryptogam
any of the spore-bearing vascular plants, including the ferns, club mosses, spike mosses, quillworts, horsetails, and whisk ferns. Once considered of the same evolutionary line, these plants were formerly placed in the single group Pteridophyta and were known as the ferns and fern allies. Although modern studies have shown that the plants are not in fact related, these terms are still used in discussion of the lower vascular plants.
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təˌgæm