cryptogamous

Cryptogamous describes organisms that reproduce by spores rather than by seeds or flowers. The term comes from the Greek kryptos, hidden, and gamos, marriage, reflecting the traditional view that their reproductive processes are not visible as the “visible” reproductive structures of seed plants.

In botanical and mycological usage, cryptogams form an informal group that historically excluded the seed-bearing phanerogams (gymnosperms and angiosperms). The traditional cryptogams include algae, bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, hornworts), ferns and other pteridophytes, fungi, and lichens. These organisms typically produce spores in specialized structures called sporangia or in other spore-producing bodies, and many exhibit life cycles with an alternation of generations, though the relative prominence of the gametophyte and sporophyte phases varies among groups.

Reproduction in cryptogams can be sexual, involving the fusion of gametes produced from gametangia, or asexual, through fragmentation, budding, or other spore-based mechanisms. Because they lack flowers, fruits, and seeds, cryptogams historically served as a contrasting group to phanerogams in classifications that separated “hidden marriage” from visible seed-based reproduction.

Today the term cryptogam is mainly a practical, historical, or ecological descriptor rather than a formal taxonomic category. It remains in use in field guides, ecological studies, and some horticultural contexts to refer to non-seed-producing plants and fungi, while modern taxonomy tends to treat its constituent groups within their respective lineages.