Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Psilotum is a genus of fern-like vascular plants.It is one of two genera in the family Psilotaceae commonly known as whisk ferns, the other being Tmesipteris.Plants in these two genera were once thought to be descended from the earliest surviving vascular plants, but more recent phylogenies place them as basal ferns, as a sister group to Ophioglossales.
The first genus, Psilotum, consists of small shrubby plants of the dry tropics commonly known as "whisk ferns". The other genus, Tmesipteris, is an epiphyte found in Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia. All members of Psilotaceae are vascular plants without any true roots.
The horsetails and their fossil relatives have long been recognized as distinct from other seedless vascular plants, such as the ferns (Polypodiopsida). [7] Before the advent of modern molecular studies , the relationship of this group to other living and fossil plants was considered problematic. [ 8 ]
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.
Traditionally, whisk ferns and horsetails were historically treated as distinct from 'true' ferns. [51] Living whisk ferns and horsetails do not have the large leaves (megaphylls) which would be expected of euphyllophytes. This has probably resulted from reduction, as evidenced by early fossil horsetails, in which the leaves are broad with ...
The Marattiaceae are a group of tropical ferns with a large, fleshy rhizome, and are now thought to be a sister group to the main group of ferns, the leptosporangiate ferns. The whisk ferns and Ophioglossids are demonstrably a clade, as are the leptosporangiate ferns and marattiaceae; however, the relationships between these two groups and the ...
The term "fern ally" included under Pteridophyta generally refers to vascular spore-bearing plants that are not ferns, including lycopods, horsetails, whisk ferns and water ferns (Marsileaceae, Salviniaceae and Ceratopteris). This is not a natural grouping but rather a convenient term for non-fern, and is also discouraged, as is eusporangiate ...
Below are lists of extant fern families and subfamilies using the classification scheme proposed by the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group in 2016 (PPG I). [1] The scheme is based on molecular phylogenetic studies, and also draws on earlier classifications, [1] particularly those by Smith et al. (2006), [2] Chase and Reveal (2009), [3] and Christenhusz et al. (2011). [4]