cryptogamic

American  

[krip-tuh-gam-ik] / ˌkrɪp təˈgæm ɪk /

adjective

1. Botany. being a cryptogam or relating to or characteristic of cryptogams.

2. having or being a crustlike soil surface containing lichens, mosses, and other organic material.

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Example Sentences

For thousands of years men looked at the cryptogamic mold called Penicillium notatum, but Dr. Fleming was the first to see its cryptic meaning.

From Time Magazine Archive

For thousands of years men looked at the cryptogamic mold called Penicillium notatum, but Dr. Fleming was the first to see its meaning.

From Time Magazine Archive

Their affinities and analogies to other cryptogamic families, and to the Phanerogamia.

From The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by Simmonds, P. L.

In these islands," he says, "cryptogamic plants find a most congenial climate, and within the forest the number of species and great abundance of mosses, lichens, and small ferns, is quite extraordinary.

From The Story of a Piece of Coal What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes by Martin, Edward A.

Either cryptogamic vegetation or the earth borne down from upper Africa is still seen to redden the river, usually dark, but not so as to destroy the fish.

From The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus by Chadwick, G. A.