This is an alphabetical listing of wort plants, meaning plants that employ the syllable wort in their English-language common names.
According to the
Oxford English Dictionary's Ask Oxford site, "A word with the suffix -wort is often very old. The
Old English word was wyrt. The modern variation, root, comes from
Old Norse. It was often used in the names of
herbs and
plants that had medicinal uses, the first part of the word denoting the complaint against which it might be specially efficacious. By the middle of the 17th-century -wort was beginning to fade from everyday use.[1]
The Naturalist Newsletter states, "Wort derives from the Old English wyrt, which simply meant plant. The word goes back even further, to the common ancestor of English and German, to the Germanic wurtiz. Wurtiz also evolved into the modern German word Wurzel, meaning root."[2]
Lilywort - A plant of the genus Funkia. Day lily. Also, any plant of the genus Liliaceae.
Liverwort - Any species of
Marchantiophyta, a division of non-vascular plants (a type of
bryophyte). Also, plants that resemble the liverworts; as, liverleaf (Hepatica).
Miterwort or mitrewort (British) - Bishop's cap. Any plant of the genus Mitella.
Moneywort - loosestrife. Herb twopence, an evergreen trailing plant. A popular name for various plants of the genus Lysimachia, especially Lysimachia nummularia, of the primrose family,
Primulaceae.
Pearlwort - Pearl grass; pearl plant; any species of the genus Sagina.
Pennywort - Linaria cymbalaria. Also, any one of a number of peltate-leaved plants. Watercup; trumpetleaf. Also Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica) and species from genus Hydrocotyle.
Saltwort - A vague and indefinite name applied to any halophyte of the genus Salsola. Salsola kali is the prickly saltwort. Also, some species of Salicornia, the
glassworts, are called saltworts.
Sandwort - A plant of the genus Arenaria. One of the Caryophyllaceae.
Water
starwort - Callitriche verna, of the water-milfoil family, and other species of the genus Callitriche, such as
Common Water-starwort, Callitriche stagnalis.
Waterwort - An aquatic plant of the genus Elatine. Any plant of the family Philydraceae.
This is an alphabetical listing of wort plants, meaning plants that employ the syllable wort in their English-language common names.
According to the
Oxford English Dictionary's Ask Oxford site, "A word with the suffix -wort is often very old. The
Old English word was wyrt. The modern variation, root, comes from
Old Norse. It was often used in the names of
herbs and
plants that had medicinal uses, the first part of the word denoting the complaint against which it might be specially efficacious. By the middle of the 17th-century -wort was beginning to fade from everyday use.[1]
The Naturalist Newsletter states, "Wort derives from the Old English wyrt, which simply meant plant. The word goes back even further, to the common ancestor of English and German, to the Germanic wurtiz. Wurtiz also evolved into the modern German word Wurzel, meaning root."[2]
Lilywort - A plant of the genus Funkia. Day lily. Also, any plant of the genus Liliaceae.
Liverwort - Any species of
Marchantiophyta, a division of non-vascular plants (a type of
bryophyte). Also, plants that resemble the liverworts; as, liverleaf (Hepatica).
Miterwort or mitrewort (British) - Bishop's cap. Any plant of the genus Mitella.
Moneywort - loosestrife. Herb twopence, an evergreen trailing plant. A popular name for various plants of the genus Lysimachia, especially Lysimachia nummularia, of the primrose family,
Primulaceae.
Pearlwort - Pearl grass; pearl plant; any species of the genus Sagina.
Pennywort - Linaria cymbalaria. Also, any one of a number of peltate-leaved plants. Watercup; trumpetleaf. Also Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica) and species from genus Hydrocotyle.
Saltwort - A vague and indefinite name applied to any halophyte of the genus Salsola. Salsola kali is the prickly saltwort. Also, some species of Salicornia, the
glassworts, are called saltworts.
Sandwort - A plant of the genus Arenaria. One of the Caryophyllaceae.
Water
starwort - Callitriche verna, of the water-milfoil family, and other species of the genus Callitriche, such as
Common Water-starwort, Callitriche stagnalis.
Waterwort - An aquatic plant of the genus Elatine. Any plant of the family Philydraceae.