- An alternately produced form of certain cryptogamous
plants, as ferns, mosses, and the like, which bears antheridia and
archegonia, and so has sexual fructification, as contrasted with the
sporophore, which is nonsexual, but produces spores in countless
number. In ferns the oophore is a minute prothallus; in mosses it is
the leafy plant.
Definition
[ n.]