Re: Bracken

[Stanley Friesen <sarima@friesen.net>]

At 08:44 AM 6/9/00 -0400, Ronald Orenstein wrote:

> Bracken is practically worldwide in distribution, and can certainly form 
> dense and extensive thickets.  However, according to Stewart's 
> "Paleobotany and the Origin of Plants" (I only have the first edition, so 
> this may be out of date) the genus Pteridium, to which bracken belongs, is 
> only known from the Tertiary, though some Jurassic and Cretaceous fossils 
> may be assignable to the large and varied family Polypodiaceae to which it 
> belongs.

I hope I never implied I thought bracken *itself* was found in the 
Cretaceous.  But pre-grass some mixture of ferns from the families 
Polypodiaceae, Marsileaceae, and Salviniaceae, along with various 
Isoetales, would have occupied most of the grass-like niches.

> plants.  And of course bracken is not the only living fern capable of 
> providing concealment; Dicranopteris ferns form high, dense and pretty 
> much impenetrable thickets along forest edge in many tropical areas, 
> including Hawaii.
Didn't know about those.  Not really surprising though.

--------------
May the peace of God be with you.         sarima@ix.netcom.com