Ferns by Marcel Kieffer

About "Ferns"

by Marcel Kieffer

About the artwork

Ferns.
Ferns are a group of vascular plants, depending on the classification, belonging to the Pteropsida or to the Monilophyta. The name 'ferns' includes, in addition to the 'true ferns', the eusporangiate ferns (the 'fern allies', English: fern allies) - including the horsetails, the Psilotopsida with the adderton family, and the Marattiopsida, but not including the Lycophyta (wolf's claws and moor ferns), which are a sister group to the ferns.

Ferns have roots, which take water from the ground or from the water, or lack it. Most species have a rhizome, a crawling piece of stem under the ground. There are also tree ferns that form a pseudo-trunk with the stems, which gives them a tree-like appearance.

The ferns have leaves that arise from the rhizome. These are not necessarily comparable with the leaves of the seed plants. Many species of ferns have infertile leaves without spores, for example double-leafed ferns. With many other species there is no distinction between fertile and sterile leaves, for example with kidney fern.

Just like mosses and wolfsbane, the ferns multiply by means of spores and do not form seeds.

The ferns form very old plant groups, of which fossils are known from the middle of the Devonian. In the Carboniferous, the group was very numerous and formful. Although most of these species became extinct in the Permian, the group has always been very present; see for an overview of fossil ferns.

Ferns and ferns are found all over the world. T