隐花植物（英语：Cryptogams，命名时类名为Cryptogamae）是指繁殖阶段不形成显着花的植物，因其是通过孢子进行繁殖，故又称孢子植物。

Cryptogamae这个类名来自于希腊语的kryptos（意为“隐蔽的”）和gameein（意为成婚），和显花植物 Phanerogamae相对。。隐花植物最早是被正式作为植物里的一类，在林奈创立双名法命名系统时，他将隐花植物正式列入《自然系统》的分类之中，使用的名称是“Cryptogamia”，下分4个目：藻类，苔藓，蕨类和真菌。。林奈之后，植物学家对地衣有所研究，使得隐花植物包含五类植物：藻类、真菌类、地衣、苔藓和蕨类。

A cryptogam (scientific name Cryptogamae) is a plant (in the wide sense of the word) that reproduces by spores, without flowers or seeds. "Cryptogamae" (Greek κρυπτός kryptos, "hidden" + γαμέω, gameein, "to marry") means hidden reproduction, referring to the fact that no seed is produced, thus cryptogams represent the non-seed bearing plants. Other names, such as "thallophytes", "lower plants", and "spore plants" are also occasionally used. As a group, Cryptogamae are the opposite of the Phanerogamae (Greek φανερός, phaneros = "visible") or Spermatophyta (Greek σπέρμα, sperma = "seed" and φυτόν, phyton = "plant"), the seed plants. The best known groups of cryptogams are algae, lichens, mosses and ferns, but it also includes non-photosynthetic organisms traditionally classified as plants, such as fungi, slime molds, and bacteria. The classification is now deprecated in Linnaean taxonomy.