Air fern

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Air fern
Airfern.jpg
A "potted" air fern
Sertularia argentea, Haeckel.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Hydrozoa
Order: Leptothecata
Family: Sertulariidae
Genus: Sertularia
Species:
S. argentea
Binomial name
Sertularia argentea
Synonyms
  • Sertularia cupressina argentea(Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Thuiaria argentea(Linnaeus, 1758)

The air fern (Sertularia argentea) is a dead and dried colony of hydrozoans, a species of marine animal in the family Sertulariidae related to corals and jellyfish.

Contents

Air ferns are typically dyed green and sold as a curiosity, as a decorative "indoor plant"; the same skeletons of former colonies of hydroids are sold in their natural dried state as the sea fir and Neptune plant as underwater decorations for aquariums.

Description

Despite a superficial resemblance to plants, air ferns are actually animal skeletons or shells of marine hydroids of the class Hydrozoa, phylum Cnidaria. The dried colonies are often dyed green, but the coloring will dissolve when soaked in water. Undyed ferns are sometimes labeled as "Neptune plants".

Colony of Sertularia argentea used in an aquarium Sertularia argentea 6880622.jpg
Colony of Sertularia argentea used in an aquarium

The fernlike branches of S. argentea are composed of many small, chitinous chambers where individual animals once lived. When the colony was alive, a polyp with numerous tentacles occupied each of the chambers, called hydrotheca.

Sometimes dried bryozoa are sold as "air ferns." [1]

Most commercially sold air ferns are collected as a by-product by trawlers in the North Sea.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

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Bryozoa are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about 0.5 millimetres long, they have a special feeding structure called a lophophore, a "crown" of tentacles used for filter feeding. Most marine bryozoans live in tropical waters, but a few are found in oceanic trenches and polar waters. The bryozoans are classified as the marine bryozoans (Stenolaemata), freshwater bryozoans (Phylactolaemata), and mostly-marine bryozoans (Gymnolaemata), a few members of which prefer brackish water. 5,869 living species are known. Originally all of the crown group Bryozoa were colonial, but as an adaptation to a mesopsammal life or to deep‐sea habitats, secondarily solitary forms have since evolved. Solitary species has been described in four genera; Aethozooides, Aethozoon, Franzenella and Monobryozoon). The latter having a statocyst‐like organ with a supposed excretory function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrozoa</span> Class of cnidarians

Hydrozoa is a taxonomic class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline water. The colonies of the colonial species can be large, and in some cases the specialized individual animals cannot survive outside the colony. A few genera within this class live in freshwater habitats. Hydrozoans are related to jellyfish and corals and belong to the phylum Cnidaria.

Stenolaemata are a class of exclusively marine bryozoans. Stenolaemates originated and diversified in the Ordovician, and more than 600 species are still alive today. All extant (living) species are in the order Cyclostomatida, the third-largest order of living bryozoans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheilostomatida</span> Order of moss animals

Cheilostomatida, also called Cheilostomata, is an order of Bryozoa in the class Gymnolaemata.

Fragmentation in multicellular or colonial organisms is a form of asexual reproduction or cloning, where an organism is split into fragments upon maturation and the spilted part becomes the new individual.

<i>Bugula</i> Genus of moss animals

Bugula is a genus of common colonial arborescent bryozoa, often mistaken for seaweed. It commonly grows upright in bushy colonies of up to 15 cm in height.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leptothecata</span> Order of cnidarians with hydrothecae

Leptothecata, or thecate hydroids, are an order of hydrozoans in the phylum Cnidaria. Their closest living relatives are the athecate hydroids, which are similar enough to have always been considered closely related, and the very apomorphic Siphonophorae, which were placed outside the "Hydroida". Given that there are no firm rules for synonymy for high-ranked taxa, alternative names like Leptomedusa, Thecaphora or Thecata, with or without the ending emended to "-ae", are also often used for Leptothecata.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conica (suborder)</span> Suborder of hydrozoans

Conica are a cnidarian suborder of the Leptomedusae. They make up the bulk of their order; their internal relationships are not well resolved, and most of the roughly 30 families are not yet assigned to a superfamily.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phylactolaemata</span> Order of moss animals

Phylactolaemata is a class of the phylum Bryozoa whose members live only in freshwater environments. Like all bryozoans, they filter feed by means of an extensible "crown" of ciliated tentacles called a lophophore, and like nearly all bryozoans, they live in colonies, each of which consists of clones of the founding member. Unlike those of some marine bryozoans, phylactolaemate colonies consist of only one type of zooid, the feeding forms known as autozooids. These are supported by an unmineralized "exoskeleton" made of gelatinous material or protein, secreted by the zooids. The class contains only one extant order, Plumatellida.

<i>Flustra foliacea</i> Species of moss animal

Flustra foliacea is a species of bryozoans found in the northern Atlantic Ocean. It is a colonial animal that is frequently mistaken for a seaweed. Colonies begin as encrusting mats, and only produce loose fronds after their first year of growth. They may reach 20 cm (8 in) long, and smell like lemons. Its microscopic structure was examined by Robert Hooke and illustrated in his 1665 work Micrographia.

<i>Eudendrium ramosum</i> Species of hydrozoan

Eudendrium ramosum, sometimes known as the tree hydroid, is a marine species of cnidaria, a hydroid (Hydrozoa) in the family Eudendriidae of the order Anthoathecata.

<i>Obelia longissima</i> Species of hydrozoan

Obelia longissima is a colonial species of hydrozoan in the order Leptomedusae. Its hydroid form grows as feathery stems resembling seaweed from a basal stolon. It is found in many temperate and cold seas world-wide but is absent from the tropics.

<i>Solanderia</i> Genus of hydrozoans

Solanderia is the sole genus of hydrozoans in the monotypic family Solanderiidae. They are commonly known as tree hydroids or sea fan hydroids.

<i>Hydrocorella africana</i> Species of cnidarian

Hydrocorella africana, the shell-mimic hydroid, is a small colonial encrusting hydroid in the family Hydractiniidae.

<i>Fenestella</i> (bryozoan) Extinct genus of bryozoans

Fenestella is a genus of bryozoans or moss animals, forming fan–shaped colonies with a netted appearance. It is known from the Middle Ordovician to the early Upper Triassic (Carnian), reaching its largest diversity during the Carboniferous. Many hundreds of species have been described from marine sediments all over the world.

Schuchertinia milleri, commonly known as the Miller hydractinia, hedgehog hydroid or snail fur, is a small colonial hydroid in the family Hydractiniidae, found in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It forms mat-like colonies on rocks, or sometimes on the mollusc shells occupied by hermit crabs.

<i>Electra posidoniae</i> Species of bryozoan (marine moss animal)

Electra posidoniae is a species of bryozoan in the family Electridae. It is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, and is commonly known as the Neptune-grass bryozoan because it is exclusively found growing on seagrasses, usually on Neptune grass, but occasionally on eelgrass.

Callopora lineata is a species of colonial bryozoan in the family Calloporidae. It is found on rocky shores in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

<i>Chorizopora brongniartii</i> Species of bryozoan (marine moss animal)

Chorizopora brongniartii is a species of bryozoan in the family Chorizoporidae. It is an encrusting bryozoan, the colonies forming spreading patches. It has a widespread distribution in tropical and temperate seas.

Lichenalia is an extinct genus of cystoporate bryozoan belonging to the family Rhinoporidae. It is known from the Upper Ordovician to the Middle Silurian periods, which spanned from approximately 460 to 430 million years ago. The genus had a cosmopolitan distribution, with fossil specimens found in various regions of the world, including North America, Europe, and Asia.

References

  1. Frank K. McKinney. "The Bryozoa". International Bryozoology Association. Archived from the original on 2006-12-13. Retrieved 2007-02-17.