The AI-powered English dictionary
plural sporophytes
(botany) A plant (or the diploid phase in its life cycle) which produces spores by meiosis in order to produce gametophytes. quotations examples
(b) sporophyte with foot reduced, the entire sporophyte enveloped by the calyptra, which is ± stipitate at the base.
1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, page 4