Fern

Ferns are vascular plants classified in the division Pteridophyte Pteridophyta that Fern#Life cycle and reproduction reproduce by shedding spores and lack both flowers and seeds. Quotes Ferns, encompassing approximately 12,000 species (PPG 1, 2016), represent only about 4% of vascular plant diversity (Mehltreter, 2010); nonetheless, they provide important Ecological goods and services ecological services (Sharpe et al., 2010), and comprise a substantial portion of commercial ornamental plant production as well as horticultural economic development (Hoshizaki and Moran, 2001; Singh and Johari, 2018). Their evolutionary and paleobiological history is extensive beginning in the Middle Devonian, approximately 390 million years ago (mya) with expanded diversity during the Cenozoic (65 mya), when Flowering plant angiosperms were becoming more dominant (Schneider et al., 2004; Schuettpelz and Pryer, 2009). Ferns were dominant flora in the Carboniferous, later losing space to gymnosperms and angiosperms. Increasing forests provided suitable protective, shady environments where ferns flourished on the forest floor or as epiphytes on tree trunks and limbs (Watkins and Cardelús, 2012). Subsequently, over geological time spans, through adaptation and evolutionary radiation (Sessa, 2018), ferns proliferated to occupy a wide diversity of terrestrial environments; ranging from swamps and coastal locations to more open grasslands, mountain terrains, drylands and deserts. Consequently, their biodiversity and life histories ... have commensurately expanded to include a rich panoply of different life forms, physiological adaptive strategies, and wide global habitats. O. Roger Anderson, Physiological ecology of ferns: Biodiversity and conservation perspectives International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation 13 2 2021 49–63 https://academicjournals.org/journal/IJBC/article-full-text/E1EB4DB66825 Phegopteris is not so happy-looking in cultivation as Dryopteris, and it is even more troublesome to pack. I took up a large number of roots, sewed them in a flat package, and put them at the bottom of the box with the other Ferns upon them. In this way the fronds were injured, but the roots themselves were unharmed. About Callander I found my first Cystopteris fragilis—that loveliest of all our English Ferns—so easy of cultivation, so delicately varied in form, and yet so tenacious of life that the smallest division of the bulbous-looking roots will grow. Nona Bellairs, Hardy Ferns: How I Collected and Cultivated Them London Smith, Elder & Company 1865 https://books.google.com/books?id=DTWyfJiXzs4C&pg=PA20 20 (128 pages) Ferns differ from flowering plants in the principles of their construction and growth. If we examine the base of a leaf-stalk of a tree we shall find a bud there, which, if left alone, will produce a branch or a cluster of fruit the next season. There are no such buds in the axils of fern leaves, not even in those of the brake, which is peculiarly tree-like in its growth. The growth of a fern is a sort of perpetual lengthening out at both ends. The upward growth, which is more frequently the subject of observation than the growth of the roots, consists first in a process of unrolling, and then of expansion and maturation of the leaves and stems. Because of these and other characters which obviously and without reference to the peculiar nature of their fruit distinguish them from flowering plants, the several parts of a fern are named differently to the corresponding parts in flowering plants. Thus, the true stem or root-stock of a fern is called a caudex, the true leaf is called a frond, the stem which bears the leaf is called the stipes, and the ramifications of the stipes through the leafy portion corresponding to the leaf-stalks of other plants bears the name of rachis. Shirley Hibberd James Shirley Hibberd, The fern garden: how to make, keep, and enjoy it; or, fern culture made easy 4th 1872 London Groombridge & Sons 2–3 1st edition 1869; text at archive.org 1. Ferns are most prominent in shady and humid environments, but many species are also found in drought-prone habitats, either (semi) arid ecosystems or locations with discontinuous water supply within otherwise humid ecosystems. These locations include tree branches and rocks, both substrates with little water storage capacity.2. Drought tolerance is gained through adaptations in water uptake, water loss, water storage and, in many ferns, desiccation tolerance, a feature that ferns share with other cryptogams. The little information available on the Plant cuticle cuticle's efficiency to limit water loss suggests that it may be similar to other vascular plants. Thus many Xerophyte xerophytic ferns, while tolerating desiccation, normally avoid it through low cuticular and stomatal water loss and may not be considered truly Poikilohydry poikilohydric. Exceptions are filmy ferns with very little control of water loss and whose water relations are akin to mosses rather than vascular plants.3. Other adaptations found in xerophytic ferns include photoprotection with pigments, antioxidants, dense Indumentum indument, leaf curling and drought avoidance by shedding leaves in the dry season. Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a common adaptation of xerophytic angiosperms, but is very rare in ferns. Succulent plant Succulence is not strongly developed in xerophytic ferns. Peter Hietz, Chapter 5. Fern adaptations to xeric environments Fern ecology 2010 140-176 Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/fern-ecology/fern-adaptations-to-xeric-environments/4545E603557112EE88A55B711606C4EB (edited by K. Mehltreter, L. R. Walker, and J. M. Sharpe) The focus of Fern#Ecology fern ecology shifted from simple habitat descriptions to more detailed observations of plant growth and population dynamics when Watt (1940) published the first of his many ecological studies of Pteridium aquilinum (bracken) in Britain (see Watt, 1976 for a review). Pteridium is an extremely successful colonizer worldwide and can form dense, nearly impenetrable stands. Pteridium generally contains several biochemical compounds such as high levels of carcinogens that make it health hazard when eaten by livestock or humans, although the early Māori people Maori of New Zealand used Pteridium esculentum rhizomes as a crop. Where it is unwanted (i.e., considered an invasive weed), Pteridium is difficult to eradicate. Pteridium therefore continues to be an important subject for ecological research (Robinson, 2007). Studies of Pteridium and other abundant ferns have helped to develop an understanding of the complex relationships between ferns and other environments. Joanne M. Sharpe, Klaus Mehltreter, and Lawrence R. Walker in: Chapter 1. Ecological importance of ferns 1–21 Fern ecology Cambridge University Press 2010 https://books.google.com/books?id=J0L8EdRYmYIC&pg=PA3 (quote on p. 3; edited by K. Mehltreter, L. R. Walker, and J. M. Sharpe) External links Ferns fern Category:Plants