Ferns: Are incredible prehistoric plants

Ferns are incredible prehistoric plants that make charming additions to outdoor and indoor gardens. Learn about all fern types and species! The easiest way to distinguish ferns from fern-allies is by their leaves. The leaves of fern-allies are small scale-like (except Isoetaceae) with only mid-vein and known as microphylls, whereas the leaves of true ferns are large and complex with branched venation and known as megaphylls. The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (land plants with vascular tissues such as xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from non-vascular plants (mosses, hornworts and liverworts) by having specialized transport bundles that conduct water and nutrients from and to the roots, as well as life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase. [3] Ferns have complex leaves called megaphylls ... Ferns are one of the oldest groups of plants on Earth, with a fossil record dating back to the middle Devonian (383-393 million years ago) (Taylor, Taylor, and Krings, 2009). Recent divergence time estimates suggest they may be even older, possibly having first evolved as far back as 430 mya (Testo and Sundue, 2016). However, despite the venerable age of the group as a whole, most of the earliest ferns have since gone extinct. Groups like the Rhacophytales, which were possibly some of the ...