4 Evolutionary Morphology of Ferns (Monilophytes)
Annual Plant Reviews book series, Volume 45: The Evolution of Plant Form
Harald Schneider,
Harald Schneider
Department of Botany, Natural History Museum, London, UK
Search for more papers by this authorHarald Schneider,
Harald Schneider
Department of Botany, Natural History Museum, London, UK
Search for more papers by this authorThis article was originally published in 2013 in The Evolution of Plant Form, Volume 45 (ISBN 9781444330014) of the Annual Plant Reviews book series, this volume edited by Barbara A. Ambrose and Michael Purugganan. The article was republished in Annual Plant Reviews online in April 2018.
Abstract
Throughout its long history, concepts of plant morphology have been mainly developed by studying seed plants, in particular angiosperms. This chapter provides an overview to the morphology of ferns by exploring the evolutionary background of the early diversification of ferns, by discussing the main structures and organs of ferns, and finally by exploring our current knowledge of fern genomics and evolutionary developmental biology. Horsetails (Equisetopsida) and whisk ferns (Psilotales) are treated as part of the fern lineage. Throughout the chapter, I employ a process-oriented approach, which combines the process orientation of the Arberian Fuzzy Morphology with the process orientation of Darwinian evolution as reflected in current phylogenetics.
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