Polypodiidae_(plant) | TriviaQuestions.online

⭐ In the context of ferns, Polypodiidae is considered a significant group because of its defining characteristic related to its life cycle. What is this characteristic?

Polypodiidae ferns exhibit a life cycle where the sporophyte, the spore-producing plant, is the most prominent and enduring phase, a feature that distinguishes them from non-vascular plants and represents a key adaptation in vascular plant evolution.

⭐ Core Definition: Polypodiidae (plant)

The Polypodiidae, commonly called leptosporangiate ferns, formerly Leptosporangiatae, are one of four subclasses of ferns, the largest of these being the largest group of living ferns, including some 11,000 species worldwide. The group has also been treated as the class Pteridopsida or Polypodiopsida, although other classifications assign them a different rank. Older names for the group include Filicidae and Filicales, although at least the "water ferns" (now the Salviniales) were then treated separately.

The leptosporangiate ferns are one of the four major groups of ferns, with the other three being the eusporangiate ferns comprising the marattioid ferns (Marattiidae, Marattiaceae), the horsetails (Equisetiidae, Equisetaceae), and whisk ferns and moonworts. There are approximately 8465 species of living leptosporangiate ferns, compared with about 2070 for all other ferns, totalling 10535 species of ferns. Almost a third of leptosporangiate fern species are epiphytes.

↓ Menu

👉 Polypodiidae (plant) in the context of Fern

The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (land plants with vascular tissues such as xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from non-vascular plants (mosses, hornworts and liverworts) by having specialized transport bundles that conduct water and nutrients from and to the roots, as well as life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase.

Ferns have complex leaves called megaphylls that are more complex than the microphylls of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns that produce coiled fiddleheads that uncoil and expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species. Ferns are defined here in the broad sense, being all of the Polypodiopsida, comprising both the leptosporangiate (Polypodiidae) and eusporangiate ferns, the latter group including horsetails, whisk ferns, marattioid ferns and ophioglossoid ferns.

↓ Explore More Topics