liverwort

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small nonvascular plant related to mosses, usually growing in damp places as a leafy shoot or flat thallus

   Liverwort covered the shaded bank in a thin green mat.

From Middle English liverwort and Old English liferwyrt, a compound of liver + wort ("plant, herb"). Under the old doctrine of signatures, its liver-shaped thallus was taken as a sign that the plant could treat liver disorders.

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