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.
Cibotium, also known as manfern, is a genus of 11 species of tropical tree ferns. It is the only genus in family Cibotiaceae in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016. Alternatively, the family may be treated as the subfamily Cibotioideae of a very broadly defined family Cyatheaceae, the family placement used for the genus in Plants of the World Online as of November 2019.
Pteridaceae is a family of ferns in the order Polypodiales, including some 1150 known species in ca 45 genera, divided over five subfamilies. The family includes four groups of genera that are sometimes recognized as separate families: the adiantoid, cheilanthoid, pteridoid, and hemionitidoid ferns. Relationships among these groups remain unclear, and although some recent genetic analyses of the Pteridales suggest that neither the family Pteridaceae nor the major groups within it are all monophyletic, as yet these analyses are insufficiently comprehensive and robust to provide good support for a revision of the order at the family level.
Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, as well the other uninhabited islands nearby, are a haven for wildlife in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The islands are or were home to much endemic flora and fauna, especially invertebrates, and many endemic fish species found in the reef ecosystems off the islands. The islands have been identified by BirdLife International as Important Bird Areas for both their endemic landbirds and breeding seabirds.
Anogramma is a genus of ferns in the subfamily Pteridoideae of the family Pteridaceae. It contains about ten species, including:
Pteris adscensionis is a fern species in the subfamily Pteridoideae of the family Pteridaceae. It is endemic to Ascension Island, and there are thought to be fewer than 500 individuals left in the wild. Its natural habitat has been severely reduced due to the large number of species introduced to the island when it was first settled in the 18th century.
Pteris vittata, commonly known variously as the Chinese brake, Chinese ladder brake, or simply ladder brake, is a fern species in the Pteridoideae subfamily of the Pteridaceae. It is indigenous to Asia, southern Europe, tropical Africa and Australia. The type specimen was collected in China by Pehr Osbeck.
Anogramma leptophylla, sometimes called Jersey fern, is a species of fern in the family Pteridaceae. It is found worldwide in temperate and subtropical regions. A rarity in the Pteridophyta, it is a fern whose sporophyte tends to have an annual life cycle. The gametophytes of this species have the ability to become dormant and wait as much as two and a half years until conditions are appropriate for the sporophyte stage of the life-cycle.
Adiantum pedatum, the northern maidenhair fern or five-fingered fern, is a species of fern in the family Pteridaceae, native to moist forests in eastern North America. Like other ferns in the genus, the name maidenhair refers to the slender, shining black stipes.
The Ascension scrub and grasslands ecoregion covers the dormant volcano, Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean. As well as shrubs and grasses wildlife on the island includes a range of unique flora and fauna. In particular the surrounding islets are important havens for many seabirds. However the seabird populations on Ascension Island itself have been severely affected by introduced species, especially cats, which were the subject of an eradication campaign between 2002 and 2006.
Pteris tremula, commonly known as Australian brake, tender brake, tender brakefern, shaking brake is a fern species of the family Pteridaceae native to sheltered areas and forests in eastern Australia and New Zealand. It has pale green, lacy fronds of up to 2 meters in length, with an erect, tufted rhizome that is covered with narrow brown scales. It is fast-growing and easy to grow in cultivation, but can become weedy.
Cryptogramma crispa, the parsley fern, is an Arctic–alpine species of fern. It produces separate sterile and fertile fronds, up to 30 cm (12 in) tall, and is a pioneer species on acidic screes.
Adiantum viridimontanum, commonly known as Green Mountain maidenhair fern, is a fern found only in outcrops of serpentine rock in New England and Eastern Canada. The leaf blade is cut into finger-like segments, themselves once-divided, which are borne on the outer side of a curved, dark, glossy rachis. These finger-like segments are not individual leaves, but parts of a single compound leaf. The "fingers" may be drooping or erect, depending on whether the individual fern grows in shade or sunlight. Spores are borne under false indusia at the edge of the subdivisions of the leaf, a characteristic unique to the genus Adiantum.
Cheilanthoideae is one of the five subfamilies of the fern family Pteridaceae. The subfamily is thought to be monophyletic, but some of the genera into which it has been divided are not, and the taxonomic status of many of its genera and species remains uncertain, with radically different approaches in use as of December 2019.
Parsley or garden parsley most often refers to the widely cultivated culinary herb Petroselinum crispum
Myriopteris maxoniana is a species of cheilanthoid fern known only from one collection in Tamaulipas, Mexico. It closely resembles Myriopteris longipila and was not described as a distinct taxon until 2004.
Argyrochosma chilensis is a fern endemic to the Juan Fernández Islands off the coast of Chile. It has leathery, thrice-divided leaves with dark brown axes; the leaves are coated with white powder below. First described as a species in 1853, it was transferred to the new genus Argyrochosma in 1987, recognizing their distinctness from the "cloak ferns".
Argyrochosma stuebeliana is a fern endemic to Peru. Its highly divided, leathery leaves are coated with white powder on their under surface. Originally described as a variety of Argyrochosma dealbata in 1909, based on a single leaf collected by Alphons Stübel, whom its name honors, it was recognized as a distinct species in 1961, distinguished from similar members of the genus largely by its round leaf segments. It was transferred to the new genus Argyrochosma in 1987, recognizing their distinctness from the "cloak ferns".
Argyrochosma palmeri is a fern endemic to Mexico. It has narrow, divided leaves with black axes; the leaves are coated in white powder below, and sparsely dusted or free of it above. First described as a species in 1887, it was transferred to the new genus Argyrochosma in 1987, recognizing their distinctness from the "cloak ferns".
Astrolepis integerrima is a fern in the family Pteridaceae known by the common names hybrid cloakfern and southwest cloakfern. Though widespread through much of northern Mexico and parts of the southwestern and south central United States, it is nowhere common. It is only found on calcareous rocks, cliffs, and canyons in the deserts and similarly dry habitats. Astrolepis integerrima is an allotriploid, a type of hybrid containing all or almost all the chromosones of two different species.
