hepatica Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun any of several plants of the genus Hepatica having three-lobed leaves and white or pinkish flowers in early spring; of moist and mossy subalpine woodland areas of north temperate regions
    liverleaf.
  2. noun a common liverwort
    Marchantia polymorpha.

WordNet

He*pat"i*ca noun
Etymology
NL. See Hepatic. So called in allusion to the shape of the lobed leaves or fronds.
Wordforms
plural Hepaticæ
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) A genus of pretty spring flowers closely related to Anemone; squirrel cup.
  2. (bot.) Any plant, usually procumbent and mosslike, of the cryptogamous class Hepaticæ; -- called also scale moss and liverwort. See Hepaticæ, in the Supplement.

Webster 1913