Thallophyte

The thallophytes (Thallophyta or Thallobionta) are a polyphyletic group of non-mobile organisms traditionally described as "thalloid plants", "relatively simple plants" or "lower plants". Several different definitions of the group have been used. Most authors^{[citation needed]} define the thallophytes as having undifferentiated bodies (thalli), as opposed to cormophytes (Cormophyta) with roots and stems. They were a defunct division of Kingdom Plantae that included fungus, lichens and algae and occasionally bryophytes, bacteria and the Myxomycota. They have a hidden reproductive system and hence they are also called Cryptogamae (together with ferns), as opposed to Phanerogamae.

Stephan Endlicher, a 19th-century Austrian botanist, separated the vegetable kingdom into the Thallophytes (algae, lichens, fungi) and the Cormophytes (including bryophytes and thus being equivalent to Embryophyta in this case) in 1836.^[1][2]

In the Lindley system (1830–1839), Endlicher's Cormophytes were divided into the Thallogens (including the bryophytes), and Cormogens ("non-flowering" plants with roots), as well as the six other classes. Cormogens were a much smaller group than Endlicher's Cormophytes,^[3] including just the ferns (and Equisetopsida) and the plants now known as lycopodiophytes.

References

See also

• Pteridophyta
• Cryptogam
• Bryophyta
• List of systems of plant taxonomy
• Non-vascular plant