Meanings
plural tracheophytes
- biologyAny plant possessing vascular tissue (xylem and phloem), including ferns, conifers, and flowering plants.
There is a clear relationship between tracheophytes and trilete spores, but not with cryptospores.
2012, Philippe Steemans, Elodie Petus, Pierre Breuer, Paula Mauller-Mendlowicz, Philippe Gerrienne, “Paleozoic Innovations in the Micro- and Megafossil Plant Record: From the Earliest Plant Spores to the Earliest Seeds”, in John A. Talent, editor, Earth and Life: Global Biodiversity, Extinction Intervals and Biogeographic Perturbations Through Time, page 4432 more examples
By virtue of the presence and absence of vascular tissues, the tracheophytes and the bryophytes were also considered two distinctly different levels of anatomical organization. Largely for these reasons, the bryophytes and the tracheophytes are traditionally viewed as two distinct lineages, though they trace their evolutionary history back to a common ancestor.
1997, Karl J. Niklas, The Evolutionary Biology of Plants, page 179The tracheophytes (vascular land plants) have a fossil record beginning in the Wenlock (Edwards et al. 1983).
2010, P. K. Strother, Thomas Servais, Marco Vecoli, “The effect of terrestrialization on marine ecosystems: the fall of CO₂”, in Marco Vecoli, Gaël Clément, B. Meyer-Berthaud, editors, The Terrestrialization Process, page 40Synonyms: vascular plant
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAny plant possessing vascular tissue (xylem and phloem), including ferns, conifers, and flowering plants.
antonym(s) of “plant with vascular tissue”
More synonyms by meaning
noungreen plant having a vascular system: ferns, gymnosperms, angiosperms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*dʰreh₂gʰ-
- Proto-Indo-European*dʰréh₂gʰus
- Proto-Hellenic*tʰrākʰús
- Ancient Greekτρᾱχεῖᾰ (trākheîă)
- Late Latintrāchīa
- Medieval Latintrāchēa
- Englishtrachea
- Englishtracheophyte
From trachea (“xylem vessel”) + -phyte (“plant”).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
tracheophyte. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tracheophyte
“tracheophyte.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tracheophyte. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tracheophyte,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tracheophyte.
Source: tracheophyte on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.