Cryptophyte

Cryptophyte

With the term cryptophyte, which derives from the two words crypto (from the Greek kryptón, ‘hidden’) and phyto (from the Greek phytón ‘plant’.), In botany, we mean those biological forms of plants that lose their aerial organs during the season adverse and whose buds (from which new jets will develop) are more or less deeply embedded in the ground; for example, many bulbous, tuberous and rhizomatous plants are cryptophytes.
Cryptophytes are therefore perennial herbaceous species whose buds or vegetative apexes are destined to survive the adverse season, are found below the surface of the soil or in the submerged soil under water.
Cryptophytes are found predominantly in cold and humid climates.
This classification is made according to the Raunkiær system, invented by the Danish botanist Christen Raunkiær, which classifies plants according to the ways in which plant organisms overcome the adverse season.
The “geophytes” and the “hydrophytes” belong to the cryptophytes.