thallus

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a plantlike vegetative body, such as that of an alga, fungus, or lichen, which is not differentiated into true stems, leaves, and roots

   The lichen's pale thallus spread slowly across the exposed rock.

From New Latin thallus, from Ancient Greek thallos, 'young shoot or green branch,' from thallein, 'to bloom or sprout.' Nineteenth-century botanists adopted it for a vegetative body lacking the distinct organs of higher plants.

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