Ferns on the Wall

These ferns were growing in the cracks of an old wall overlooking Heidelberg in Germany. I photographed them on a rainy September day when visibility... more

by Sarah Loft

Title

Ferns on the Wall

Artist

Sarah Loft

Medium

Photograph

Description

These ferns were growing in the cracks of an old wall overlooking Heidelberg in Germany. I photographed them on a rainy September day when visibility was too poor to get pictures of Heidelberg in the distance.

Per Wikipedia: 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 certain tissue that conducts water and nutrients, and having branched stems. Like other vascular plants, ferns have leaves, and these are "megaphylls", which are more complex than the "microphylls" of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns, sometimes termed "true ferns"; they produce what are called "fiddleheads" that uncoil and expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species.

Ferns as defined herein are the ferns sensu lato, being all of the Polypodiopsida, comprising both the leptosporangiate (Polypodiidae) and eusporangiate ferns, the latter itself comprising "ferns" other than those denominated "true ferns": horsetails (including scouring rushes), whisk ferns, marattioid ferns, and ophioglossoid ferns.

Ferns first appear in the fossil record 360 million years ago in the late Devonian period, but many of the current families and species did not appear until roughly 145 million years ago in the early Cretaceous, after flowering plants came to dominate many environments. The fern Osmunda claytoniana is a paramount example of evolutionary stasis; paleontological evidence indicates it has remained unchanged, even at the level of fossilized nuclei and chromosomes, for at least 180 million years.

Ferns are not of major economic importance, but some are used for food, medicine or as ornamentals, and for remediating contaminated soil. They have been the subject of research for their ability to remove some chemical pollutants from the atmosphere. Some fern species are significant weeds. They also play certain roles in mythology and art.

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Featured in the Images That Excite You group, June 2017.

Featured in the Photography and Nature 101 group, June 2017.

Featured in the 500 Views group, January 2019.

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June 24th, 2017