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Ferns
The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients, and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase. Ferns have complex leaves called megaphylls that are more complex than the microphylls of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns. They produce coiled fiddleheads that uncoil and expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species. Ferns are defined here in the broad sense, being all of the Polypodiopsida, comprising both the leptosporangiate ( Polypodiidae) and eusporangiate ferns, the latter group including horsetails, whisk ferns, marattioid ferns, and ophioglossoid ferns. The fern crown group, consisting of the leptosporangiates and eusporangiates, is estimated to have origin ...
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Leptosporangiate Fern
The Polypodiidae, commonly called leptosporangiate ferns, formerly Leptosporangiatae, are one of four subclasses of ferns, the largest of these being the largest group of living ferns, including some 11,000 species worldwide. The group has also been treated as the class Pteridopsida or Polypodiopsida, although other classifications assign them a different rank. Older names for the group include Filicidae and Filicales, although at least the "water ferns" (now the Salviniales) were then treated separately. The leptosporangiate ferns are one of the four major groups of ferns, with the other three being the eusporangiate ferns comprising the marattioid ferns (Marattiidae, Marattiaceae), the horsetails (Equisetiidae, Equisetaceae), and whisk ferns and moonworts. There are approximately 8465 species of living leptosporangiate ferns, compared with about 2070 for all other ferns, totalling 10535 species of ferns. Almost a third of leptosporangiate fern species are epiphytes. These ...
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Cyatheales
The order Cyatheales, which includes most tree ferns, is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic order of the fern class, Polypodiopsida. No clear morphology (biology), morphological features characterize all of the Cyatheales, but DNA sequence data indicate the order is monophyly, monophyletic. Some species in the Cyatheales have tree-like growth forms from a vertical rhizome, others have shorter or horizontal expanding rhizomes. Some species have scales on the stems and leaves, while others have hairs. However, most plants in the Cyatheales are tree ferns and have trunk-like stems up to tall. It is unclear how many times the tree form has evolved and been lost in the order.Judd, W.S., C.S. Campbell, E.A. Kellogg, P.F. Stevens, and M.J. Donoghue (Eds.) 2008. Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach, Third Edition. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts, USA. Description While the Cyatheales have been shown to be monophyletic through molecular analysis, no prominent morphologic ...
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Osmundales
Osmundaceae (royal fern family) is a family of ferns containing four to six extant genera and 18–25 known species. It is the only living family of the order Osmundales in the class Polypodiopsida (ferns) or in some classifications the only order in the class Osmundopsida. This is an ancient (known from the Upper Permian) and fairly isolated group that is often known as the "flowering ferns" because of the striking aspect of the ripe sporangia in ''Claytosmunda'', ''Osmunda'', ''Osmundastrum'', and ''Plensium'' (subtribe Osmundinae). In these genera the sporangia are borne naked on non-laminar pinnules, while ''Todea'' and ''Leptopteris'' (subtribe Todinae) bear sporangia naked on laminar pinnules. Ferns in this family are larger than most other ferns. Description The stems of Osmundaceae contain vascular tissue arranged as an ectophloic siphonostele; that is, a ring of phloem occurs on the outside only of a ring of xylem, which surrounds pith (and no other vascular tissue). ...
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Polypodiales
The Order (biology), order Polypodiales encompasses the major lineages of polypod ferns, which comprise more than 80% of today's fern species. They are found in many parts of the world including Tropics, tropical, semitropical and Temperate climate, temperate areas. Description Polypodiales are unique in bearing sporangia with a vertical Annulus (botany), annulus interrupted by the stalk and stomium. These sporangial characters were used by Johann Jakob Bernhardi to define a group of ferns he called the "Cathetogyratae"; the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group has suggested reviving this name as the informal term cathetogyrates, to replace the ambiguously circumscribed term "polypods" when referring to the Polypodiales. The sporangia are born on stalks 1–3 cells thick and are often long-stalked. (In contrast, the Hymenophyllales have a stalk composed of four rows of cells.) The sporangia do not reach maturity simultaneously. Many groups in the order lack Sorus, indusia, but when presen ...
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Ophioglossidae
Ophioglossidae is one of the four subclasses of Polypodiopsida (ferns). This subclass consists of the ferns commonly known as whisk ferns, grape ferns, adder's-tongues and moonworts. It is equivalent to the class Psilotopsida in previous treatments, including Smith ''et al.'' (2006). The subclass contains two orders, Psilotales and Ophioglossales, whose relationship was only confirmed by molecular phylogenetic studies. Taxonomy Smith et al. (2006) carried out the first higher-level pteridophyte classification published in the molecular phylogenetic era, and considered the ferns (monilophytes), with four classes. They placed the whisk ferns and related taxa in the class Psilotopsida, with two orders. Mark W. Chase and James L. Reveal (2009) classified them as two separate subclasses, Psilotidae and Ophioglossidae, corresponding to those orders within a much broader grouping, the class Equisetopsida ''sensu lato''. Christenhusz ''et al.'', 2011, included both the Ophi ...
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Marattiales
Marattiaceae is the only family of extant (living) ferns in the order Marattiales. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), Marattiales is the only order in the subclass Marattiidae. The family has six genera and about 110 species. Many are different in appearance from other ferns, having large fronds and fleshy rootstocks. Description The Marattiaceae diverged from other ferns very early in their evolutionary history and are quite different from many plants familiar to people in temperate zones. Many of them have massive, fleshy rootstocks and the largest known fronds of any fern. The Marattiaceae is one of two groups of ferns traditionally known as eusporangiate ferns, meaning that the sporangium is formed from a group of cells as opposed to a leptosporangium in which there is a single initial cell. At least two genera, ''Angiopteris'' and ''Marattia'', have been reported to undergo monoplastidic meiosis rather than polyplastidic meiosis, and are the ...
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Gleicheniales
Gleicheniales is an order of ferns in the subclass Polypodiidae (the leptosporangiate ferns). The Gleicheniales has spore records potentially as early as the Early Carboniferous, but the oldest unambiguous macrofossil records date to the Early Permian. Description These ferns are characterized by root steles having 3–5 protoxylem poles and antheridia with 6–12 narrow, twisted or curved cells in their walls, Gleichenia-type spore wall ultrastructure. Otherwise, their habitus is highly diverse, including plants with the typical fern fronds, others whose leaves resemble those of palm trees, and yet others again which have undivided leaves. They are tropical ferns, most diverse in Asia and the Pacific region. Classification In the molecular phylogenetic classification of Smith et al. in 2006, the Gleicheniales were placed in class Polypodiopsida (the leptosporangiate ferns). Three families, Dipteridaceae, Gleicheniaceae, and Matoniaceae were recognized. The linear seque ...
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Hymenophyllales
The Hymenophyllaceae, the filmy ferns and bristle ferns, are a family of two to nine genera (depending on classification system) and about 650 known species of ferns, with a subcosmopolitan distribution, but generally restricted to very damp places or to locations where they are wetted by spray from waterfalls or springs. Fossil evidence shows that ferns of the family Hymenophyllaceae have existed since at least the Upper Triassic. Description They often appear as very dark green or even black clumps and may be mistaken for a robust moss or liverwort. The rhizome is usually thin and wiry and the fronds variously pinnate with a single strand ("nerve") of vascular tissue. As in most ferns, young fronds have circinate vernation. In most species, the frond, apart from the vascular tissue, is only a single cell thick, and they do not have any stomata. The cuticle is also greatly reduced or absent, leaving filmy ferns poikilohydric and very susceptible to desiccation where a reliable ...
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Vascular Plant
Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes (, ) or collectively tracheophyta (; ), are plants that have lignin, lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified Tissue (biology), tissue (the phloem) to conduct products of photosynthesis. The group includes most embryophyte, land plants ( accepted known species) excluding mosses. Vascular plants include the clubmosses, Equisetum, horsetails, ferns, gymnosperms (including conifers), and angiosperms (flowering plants). They are contrasted with nonvascular plants such as mosses and green algae. Scientific names for the vascular plants group include Tracheophyta, Tracheobionta and Equisetopsida sensu lato, Equisetopsida ''sensu lato''. Some early land plants (the rhyniophytes) had less developed vascular tissue; the term eutracheophyte has been used for all other vascular plants, including all living ones. Historically, vascular plants were known as "hi ...
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Equisetidae
Equisetidae is one of the four subclasses of Polypodiopsida (ferns), a group of vascular plants with a fossil record going back to the Devonian. They are commonly known as horsetails. They typically grow in wet areas, with whorls of needle-like branches radiating at regular intervals from a single vertical stem. The Equisetidae were formerly regarded as a separate division of spore plants and called Equisetophyta, Arthrophyta, Calamophyta or Sphenophyta. When treated as a class, the names Equisetopsida s.s. and Sphenopsida have also been used. They are now recognized as rather close relatives of the ferns (Polypodiopsida) of which they form a specialized lineage. However, the division between the horsetails and the other ferns is so ancient that many botanists, especially paleobotanists, still regard this group as fundamentally separate at the higher level. Description The horsetails comprise photosynthesising, "segmented", hollow stems, sometimes filled with pith. At the ju ...
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