liverwort

Etymology

From Middle English lyverwort, liverwort, from Old English liferwyrt, equivalent to liver + wort, from the belief that some species looked like livers and were useful for treating the liver medicinally.

noun

1. A type of bryophyte with a leafy stem or leafless thallus characterized by a dominant gametophyte stage and a lack of stomata on the sporophyte stage of the life cycle.
   The liverworts are either thallose, without any differentiation into stem and leaves, or leafy. 1929, Shiv Ram Kashyap, Liverworts of the Western Himalayas and the Panjab Plain, volume I, page 1
   Since the thallus of some liverworts resembled a liver, such plants were considered useful in making a concoction that would aid in curing liver ailments. Hence the name "liver-plant," or liverwort. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that liverworts possess curative properties. 1985, W. B. Schofield, Introduction to Bryology, page 135
   2000 — Barbara Crandall-Stotler & Raymond E. Stotler, "Morphology and classification of the Marchantiophyta". pages 21-70 in A. Jonathan Shaw & Bernard Goffinet (Eds.), Bryophyte Biology, page 21. Like other bryophytes, liverworts are small, herbaceous plants of terrestrial ecosystems.
2. A common flowering perennial herb of northern woodlands, Hepatica nobilis (syn. Anemone hepatica), used in traditional European herbal medicine.