Interesting facts about ferns

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The wind helps the ferns reproduce. Sometimes it spreads their spores hundreds of kilometers from the mother plant, and, once on suitable soil, they germinate.
Huge tree ferns grow very slowly, averaging 3-5 cm per year. But they live for a long time, and some specimen 10 meters high, most likely, has been living for two or three centuries.
One of the most common ferns in the world is bracken, or Pteridium aquilinum . In general, it is poisonous, which sometimes leads to problems if it is eaten by farm animals, but in a pickled form, young shoots of this plant are eaten in some Asian countries.
Ferns can adapt well to habitat conditions. For example, a species of Platycerium bifurcatum , originally from Australia, accidentally got into the wild in the southern United States , in Florida, and took root well there.
The smallest fern in the world grows in water. It is called Azolla cristata , and usually grows between 0.5 and 1.5 cm. In Asia, it is specially grown and used as an effective fertilizer for rice fields.

Ferns are found on all continents except Antarctica, although millions of years ago, when it was warm in Antarctica, they also grew there. And on the territory of Russia there are about 2000 species of these plants.
The first ferns appeared on Earth about 400 million years ago, that is, approximately simultaneously with insects. For comparison, the first dinosaurs appeared about 230 million years ago, and the first mammals about 200 million years ago.
Some ferns in the process of life release toxic substances into the air that act as herbicides. Thus, ferns destroy the plants closest to them and clear the living space for themselves.
Ferns are also used as houseplants. Species belonging to the genera Nephrolepidaceae and Asplenium are also quite highly valued , because they look quite interesting.
In the mythology of many Slavic peoples, fern flowers have magical properties. However, these plants never actually flower.

In Australia and on the island of Tasmania, there are giant ferns called Antarctic Dixonia, although these plants have nothing to do with Antarctica . They can grow up to 15 meters and have a trunk up to 2 meters in diameter.
Some types of ferns are quite edible. They are part of some dishes of Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisine. Their benefit also lies in the fact that they help remove radiation from the body .
The trunks of some tree ferns are so strong and hard that they look more like wood than soft pulp. In some countries in Asia and Oceania, they are even used as a building material.
In the traditional cuisine of the indigenous people of Hawaii there are dishes from ferns. The plants growing there are cut off and their soft core is ground into flour, from which they then make pastries.
The only continent that has real forests, consisting of huge tree ferns instead of trees, is Australia. Places like this look like the era of the dinosaurs never left.

Of all the plants on earth, ferns are among the oldest, dating back to the time of the dinosaurs. Moreover, since then they have not even declined too much in terms of species diversity.
Today, there are about 10,620 species of fern plants. They all come out similar to each other, even if they differ significantly in size, which is why they are commonly called simply ferns, although they are all divided into almost 587 genera and 48 families.
Millions of years ago, the huge Psaronius tree ferns existed on Earth . They grew up to 10 meters in length, and the diameter of their trunk could easily reach 1 meter.
Ferns do not have flowers, as they reproduce by spores. But in fact, they don't even have leaves! What looks like leaves is actually a lot of branches fused in the same plane.
Some ferns lead a parasitic lifestyle. Such species of them do not grow on the soil , but on trees , and they stifle them, like creepers.