| Actinostachys pennula | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Division: | Polypodiophyta |
| Class: | Polypodiopsida |
| Order: | Schizaeales |
| Family: | Schizaeaceae |
| Genus: | Actinostachys |
| Species: | A. pennula |
| Binomial name | |
| Actinostachys pennula | |
Actinostachys pennula, the ray spiked fern or tropical curly-grass, is a fern native mainly to Southern Florida and is an endangered plant species.
S. germanii (Fée) Prantl; Actinostachys germanii Fée; Actinostachys pennula (Sw.) Hook.
Actinostachys pennula is naturally found in Northern and Southern America. Encompassing Florida of the Southeastern United States and Southern Mexico. As well as in the Caribbean, Mesoamerica, Brazil, and parts of Northern, Western and Southern South America. Sites in Florida where Actinostachys pennula have been sited are Miami Dade, Palm Beach, and Lee county. [2]
Actinostachys pennula is a fern that grows in terrestrial environments. It is adapted to tropical regions. Actinostachys pennula is found near rotten tree stumps and litter that is decomposing in highly wet rain forests and baylands (wetlands that are continually reached by tides). [3] It is a perennial plant. Normally found at an elevation of 0–500 feet. Best conditions are in wet, marshy areas with high temperatures and an abundance of sunlight. Individuals found in more sunny areas tend to be larger in size compared to their counterparts that live in more shady terrestrial environments.
Individuals of this species vary in size from 5–50 cm. Actinostachys pennula ferns range from small sizes living near decomposing leaf and tree matter to larger sizes with ones that live in places that are abundant in sunlight and are in wide open areas. [3] It is a non-grass herb. The roots are dark and covered with rigid black hairs that are 2–3 mm in length. [3] The rhizome is considered hairy and bristly due to these features. The stems are upright with their hairs in a single line. The stem of the Actinostachys pennula is not a singular structure. The stem is composed of many tiny, narrow stems that are commonly less than 1 mm in diameter. [3] They reproduce rapidly from bases of old leaves. [3] Thus, the stem bears more of a resemblance to a firmly packed, inter-grown bush than a solitary stem. [3] Actinostachys pennula has leaves related to the stem in a cauline design which has not been observed in any other fern present today. [3] Leaves are like grass and are 1–60 mm in length. The leaves are all fertile, do not have branches, and have long petioles that are .5–2 cm in length. [3] The blades of the leaves have rays that are on very short rachis which give the false impression of a whorl-like pattern. [3] The rays can range from 1–12 mm or 4–40 mm in length. All new leaves for the Actinostachys pennula are built from the base of leaves already produced by the plant. The mass of curly petioles gives Actinostachys pennula its nickname as the tropical curly grass plant. There is no main shoot apex as one leaf is produced from the previous one. [4]
Stachys, which means spike, refers to the fertile parts of the Actinostachys pennula which are fashioned in a spike-like manner. [3] Juvenile individuals of the Actinostachys pennula have a big bulging gametophyte attached that is left over after maturation. The tuber of the gametophyte is sometimes mistaken for the stem because it is large and bulb-like.
Actinostachys pennula is an endangered plant species according to the USDA. [5] Actinostachys pennula is listed as an endangered species by FDACS and critically threatened by FNAI. Lygodium japonicum, which is a vine-like fern, can be an invasive species and after time can become the most prevalent species in an area. The native inhabitants can be endangered by this intrusive species and studies have shown that Lygodium japonicum threatens the species of Actinostachys pennula in its native habitat in Florida. Lygodium microphyllum is another species that threatens the survival of Actinostachys pennula and has pushed it out of many tree islands where Actinostachys pennula is usually found. [6] Wildfires also threaten the survival of Actinostachys pennula. It is estimated that less than a thousand Actinostachys pennula plants exist in Boynton Beach Florida where the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is located.
The ferns are a group of vascular plants 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.
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. They lack true roots and leaves are very reduced, the stems being the organs containing photosynthetic and conducting tissue. There are only two species in Psilotum and a hybrid between the two. They differ from those in Tmesipteris in having stems with many branches and a synangium with three lobes rather than two.
Huperzia is a genus of lycophyte plants, sometimes known as the firmosses or fir clubmosses; the Flora of North America calls them gemma fir-mosses. This genus was originally included in the related genus Lycopodium, from which it differs in having undifferentiated sporangial leaves, and the sporangia not formed into apical cones. The common name firmoss, used for some of the north temperate species, refers to their superficial resemblance to branches of fir (Abies), a conifer. As of 2020, two very different circumscriptions of the genus were in use. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, Huperzia is one of three genera in the subfamily Huperzioideae of the family Lycopodiaceae. Most species in the subfamily are placed in the genus Phlegmariurus. Huperzia is left with about 25 species, although not all have been formally transferred to other genera. Other sources recognize only Huperzia, which then has about 340 species.
Ophioglossaceae, the adder's-tongue family, is a small family of ferns. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, it is the only family in the order Ophioglossales, which together with the Psilotales is placed in the subclass Ophioglossidae. The Ophioglossidae are one of the groups traditionally known as eusporangiate ferns. Members of the family differ from other ferns in a number of ways. Many have only a single fleshy leaf at a time. Their gametophytes are subterranean and rely on fungi for energy.
Lygodium is a genus of about 40 species of ferns, native to tropical regions across the world, with a few temperate species in eastern Asia and eastern North America. It is the sole genus in the family Lygodiaceae in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016. Alternatively, the genus may be placed as the only genus in the subfamily Lygodioideae of a more broadly defined family Schizaeaceae, the family placement used in Plants of the World Online as of November 2019. Per recent molecular evidence, Lygodiaceae is thought to have diverged relatively early from the other members of the Schizaeales due to the relatively high level of synonymous sequence divergence between the families within the Schizaeales.
Lycopodium is a genus of clubmosses, also known as ground pines or creeping cedars, in the family Lycopodiaceae. Two very different circumscriptions of the genus are in use. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, Lycopodium is one of nine genera in the subfamily Lycopodioideae, and has from nine to 15 species. In other classifications, the genus is equivalent to the whole of the subfamily, since it includes all of the other genera. More than 40 species are accepted.
A pteridophyte is a vascular plant that reproduces by means of spores. Because pteridophytes produce neither flowers nor seeds, they are sometimes referred to as "cryptogams", meaning that their means of reproduction is hidden.
Bouteloua curtipendula, commonly known as sideoats grama, is a perennial, short prairie grass that is native throughout the temperate and tropical Western Hemisphere, from Canada south to Argentina.
Plant reproduction is the production of new offspring in plants, which can be accomplished by sexual or asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction produces offspring by the fusion of gametes, resulting in offspring genetically different from either parent. Asexual reproduction produces new individuals without the fusion of gametes, resulting in clonal plants that are genetically identical to the parent plant and each other, unless mutations occur.
Lophosoria quadripinnata(J.F.Gmel.) C.Chr. is a species of fern that, according to DNA molecular analysis, belongs to the family Dicksoniaceae, where it is placed in the genus Lophosoria. It is found in the Americas spanning from Cuba and Mexico to Chile. In Chile it is present in the area between Talca and Aysén including Juan Fernández Islands. In Argentina it grows only in the humid valleys of western Neuquén and Río Negro Province. Diamondleaf fern is a common name. In Spanish it is known as 'ampe' or palmilla, but one has to remember that there are several species of ferns called "palmillas" that have larger or smaller fronds, and which grow in colder climates. It is a medium-sized plant, growing to about 4–5 feet and even though the rhizome does not grow a trunk, it is clearly related to the other tree ferns due to features that were apparently already present in their common ancestor, like 'pneumathodes', and the rhizome which changed from the dorsiventral symmetry typical of the other ferns, to a radial symmetry typical of tree ferns. Their large and multiple pinnate fronds, with the petiole raised adaxially, and the hairs on the rhizome and lower part of the petioles, also resemble those of tree ferns. To identify the species, use the position and characteristics of the spores found on the fertile fronds. The genus already existed in the Cretaceous Period in southern Gondwana according to fossil remains found in Antarctica. The species is well known as an ornamental plant.
Cheiroglossa palmata, synonyms Ophioderma palmatum and Ophioglossum palmatum, variously known as hand fern, dwarf staghorn, or hand tongue, is an epiphytic or terrestrial fern. As an epiphyte it grows in old leaf bases of the cabbage palmetto.
Lygodium palmatum is the only species of its genus native to North America. Unlike most species in the genus, this one, called the American climbing fern, Hartford fern, or Alice's fern, is extremely hardy in temperate zones .The name "Hartford Fern" being derived from its former prevalence in Hartford and the surrounding Connecticut area. It was extensively used as a Christmas decoration by early settlers, leading to the first law protecting a plant species in the United States in 1869.
Diplazium australe, commonly known as the Austral lady fern, is a small fern occurring in eastern Australia, New Zealand and Norfolk Island. The habitat is moist shaded areas, often occurring in rainforest.
Lygodium japonicum is a species of fern that is known by the common names vine-like fern and Japanese climbing fern. It is native to eastern Asia, including Taiwan, Japan, Korea, southeastern Asia, and India, and eastern Australia. The fern is present in the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico as an introduced species.
Muhlenbergia capillaris, commonly known as the hairawn muhly, is a perennial sedge-like plant that grows to be about 30–90 cm (0.98–2.95 ft) tall and 60–90 cm (2.0–3.0 ft) wide. The plant includes a double layer; green, leaf-like structures surround the understory, and purple-pink flowers outgrow them from the bottom up. The plant is a warm-season grass, meaning that leaves begin growth in the summer. During the summer, the leaves stay green, but they morph during the fall to produce a more copper color. The seasonal changes also include the flowers, as they grow out during the fall and stay healthy till the end of autumn. The muhly grows along the border of roads and on plain prairies. The grass clumps into herds, causing bush-like establishments in the area the hairawn muhly inhabits. The flowers are very feathery and add a cloudlike appearance to the top of the grass. It is native to eastern North America and can be used for a multitude of purposes, including ornamental gardening and farming. It was voted 2012 plant of the year by the Garden Club of America.
Anchistea is a genus of leptosporangiate ferns in the family Blechnaceae. It has only one species, Anchistea virginica the Virginia chain fern, which has long creeping, scaly, underground stems or rhizomes giving rise to tall widely separated, deciduous, single leaves. In contrast, the leaves of Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, which can be mistaken for A. virginica, grow in a group from a crown. Also in contrast to O. cinnamomeum the leaves are monomorphic without distinct fertile fronds. The lower petiole or stipe is dark purple to black, shiny and swollen, the upper rachis is dull green. The leaf blade is green and lanceolate, composed of 12 to 23 paired, alternate pinnatifid pinnae. The pinnae are subdivided into 15 to 20 paired segments that are ovate to oblong. The lower rachis is naked for about half its length. The sori or spore-producing bodies are found on the underside of the pinnae and are long and form a double row which outlines the major veins of the pinnae. In common with all ferns, A. virginica exhibits a gametophyte stage in its life cycle and develops a haploid reproductive prothallus as an independent plant. The spores are produced in red-brown sori which line the spaces (areolae) between the costa and costules. Further photographs can be found at the Connecticut Botanical Society and Ontario Ferns websites.
Helanthium tenellum, the pygmy chain sword, is a species of plants in the Alismataceae. It is native to the eastern United States, southern Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America
Lygodium articulatum, commonly referred to as mangemange or Bushman's mattress, is a fern endemic to the North Island forests of New Zealand. Mangemange is an endemic species and is unique compared to other ferns in the area due to the vine–like curtain it creates in the canopy. Although the majority of the plant is found in the canopy of the surrounding forest, the roots and stem of mangemange form on the ground, meaning it cannot be classified as an epiphyte.
Tmesipteris horomaka, commonly known as the Banks Peninsula fork fern, is a fern ally endemic to New Zealand.