Ferns are weird. They're green and leafy like other forest plants, but they reproduce more like mushrooms do—by releasing clouds of spores. Many species don't require a partner for fertilization, ...

In the Panamanian rainforest, scientists found the first known plant species to transform decaying tissue into a new source of nutrients. By Douglas Main In the rainforests of western Panama, the ...

For the first time, researchers have characterized the genome arrangement of tree ferns, which sheds new insight into how ferns evolved. Land plants evolved 470 million years ago from algae and have ...

To get by in the waterlogged, low-nutrient soil of the Quebrada Chorro forest in western Panama, a species of tree fern repurposes its dead fronds, turning them into roots. The discovery “was ...

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign plant biology professor James Dalling and his colleagues discovered that some tree ferns recycle their dead fronds into roots. The researchers call these ...

Probably the first pioneer plants to arrive in Hawaii were mosses and ferns. Ferns have been around for over 360 million years. Giant tree fern forests were common for millions of years but they gave ...

There is something otherworldly about ferns. Their fronds suggest feathers and wings, and so when looking at them you may think of taking flight, most likely into the pre-historic past when they ...

Master gardener Wesley Gladhart turned his Metairie backyard into a fern oasis. Here are his fern gardening tips. Advice for terrestrial or landscape ferns "Most of my ferns that are not epiphytes ( ) ...

Land plants evolved 470 million years ago from algae and have since reshaped our world. Throughout their evolution, ferns have undergone a series of changes that have helped them survive on land. For ...

There is something otherworldly about ferns. Their fronds suggest feathers and wings, and so when looking at them you may think of taking flight, most likely into the pre-historic past when they ...