| Small fork fern | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mount Dromedary, Australia | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Class: | Polypodiopsida |
| Order: | Psilotales |
| Family: | Psilotaceae |
| Genus: | Tmesipteris |
| Species: | T. parva |
| Binomial name | |
| Tmesipteris parva | |
Tmesipteris parva is a fern ally endemic to eastern Australia. The habitat of this primitive plant is on tree ferns in moist eucalyptus forests rainforests. [1]
A fern is a member of 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 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 or scouring rushes, whisk ferns, marattioid ferns, and ophioglossoid ferns.
Vascular plants, also known as tracheophytes, form a large group of plants that are defined as land plants that have lignified tissues for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified tissue to conduct products of photosynthesis. Vascular plants include the clubmosses, horsetails, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms. Scientific names for the group include Tracheophyta, Tracheobionta and Equisetopsida sensu lato. Some early land plants had less developed vascular tissue; the term eutracheophyte has been used for all other vascular plants.
Psilotum is a genus of fern-like vascular plants, commonly known as whisk ferns. It is one of two genera in the family Psilotaceae, 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, the stems being the organs containing 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.
A pteridophyte is a vascular plant that disperses spores. Because pteridophytes produce neither flowers nor seeds, they are sometimes referred to as "cryptogams", meaning that their means of reproduction is hidden. Ferns, horsetails, and lycophytes are all pteridophytes. However, they do not form a monophyletic group because ferns are more closely related to seed plants than to lycophytes. "Pteridophyta" is thus no longer a widely accepted taxon, but the term pteridophyte remains in common parlance, as do pteridology and pteridologist as a science and its practitioner, respectively. Ferns and lycophytes share a life cycle and are often collectively treated or studied, for example by the International Association of Pteridologists and the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group.
The Daintree Rainforest is a region on the northeast coast of Queensland, Australia, north of Mossman and Cairns. At around 1,200 square kilometres (460 sq mi), the Daintree is a part of the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest on the Australian continent. The Daintree Rainforest is a part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland Rainforest, that spans across the Cairns Region. The Wet Tropics Rainforest is the oldest continually surviving tropical rainforest in the world. Along the coastline north of the Daintree River, tropical forest grows right down to the edge of the sea.
Cyathea is a genus of tree ferns, the type genus of the fern order Cyatheales.
In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves or of structures resembling leaves.
Banksia densa is a species of column-like shrub that is endemic to Western Australia. It has deeply serrated to pinnatifid leaves, creamy yellow flowers in heads of up to seventy-five, and hairy follicles.
The Polypodiidae, commonly called leptosporangiate ferns, formerly Leptosporangiatae, are one of four subclasses of ferns, and 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" were then treated separately.
Tmesipteris the "hanging fork fern", is a genus of fern-like vascular plants, one of two genera in the family Psilotaceae, order Psilotales . Tmesipteris is restricted to certain lands in the Southern Pacific, notably Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. In New Zealand this hanging epiphyte is common in the warm temperate rain forests of both main islands, where it can normally be found as short spiky dark-green fronds, often with lighter bag-like sporangia at the bases of some of its "leaves". The plant possesses no true leaves; what appear to be leaves are flattened stems. The fronds emerge directly from the fibrous root-mats which clad the trunks of mature tree ferns such as Dicksonia and Cyathea. Tmesipteris is from the Greek language, meaning a "cut fern", referring to the truncated leaf tips.
Chain fern is a common name for several ferns and may refer to:
Tmesipteris tannensis is a fern ally endemic to New Zealand. It is usually epiphytic on trees and tree ferns, but is occasionally terrestrial.
Banksia densa var. parva is a variety of Banksia densa. It was known as Dryandra conferta var. parva until 2007, when Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele sunk all Dryandra into Banksia. Since there was already a Banksia named Banksia conferta, Mast and Thiele had to choose a new specific epithet for D. conferta and hence for this variety of it. As with other members of Banksia ser. Dryandra, it is endemic to the South West Botanical Province of Western Australia.
A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant community are influenced by soil type, topography, climate and human disturbance. In many cases there are several soil types within a given plant community.
Tmesipteris truncata is a fern ally endemic to eastern Australia. The habitat of this primitive plant is under waterfalls, or in sandstone gullies or rainforests. Commonly referred to as a Fork Fern. It is often found growing on the base of the King Fern. Usually seen as an epiphyte or lithophyte, but it may also appear as a terrestrial plant. Found as far south as Mount Dromedary.
Tmesipteris ovata is a fern ally endemic to eastern Australia. The habitat of this primitive plant is on tree ferns in rainforests.
Tmesipteris obliqua, more commonly known as the Long fork-fern or Common fork-fern, is a weeping, epiphytic fern ally with narrow unbranched leafy stems. T. obliqua is one of many species apart of the genus, Tmesipteris, more commonly known as "hanging fork-ferns". Tmesipteris is one of two genera in the order Psilotales, the other genus being Psilotum. T. obliqua is endemic to eastern Australia.
Tmesipteris elongata is a fern ally endemic to south eastern Australia and New Zealand. Often seen growing on soft tree ferns in moist valleys.
Tmesipteris horomaka, commonly known as the Banks Peninsula fork fern, is a fern ally endemic to New Zealand.
Cheiropleuria is a genus of ferns in the family Dipteridaceae. Species are found in both temperate and tropical eastern Asia.
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