From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tmesipteris the "hanging fork fern", is a genus of fern-like vascular plants, one of two genera in the family Psilotaceae, order Psilotales, and class Psilotopsida (the other being Psilotum). Tmesipteris is restricted to certain lands in the Southern Pacific, notably Australia (Tasmania), New Zealand and New Caledonia. In New Zealand this hanging epiphyte is not uncommon in the warm temperate rain forests of both main islands, where it can normally be found as short spiky dark-green fronds (10-15 cm long), often with lighter bag-like sporangia at the bases of some of its "leaves". The fronds emerge directly from the fibrous root-mats which clad the trunks of mature tree ferns such as Dicksonia and Cyathea.
[edit] References
- Bierhorst, D W (1977) The Systematic Position of Psilotum and Tmesipteris, Brittonia (New York Botanical Garden Press)
- Qiu, Y-L and Palmer, J (1999) Phylogeny of early land plants: insights from genes and genomes. Trends in Plant Science 4 (1), 26-30
