Devil fern
| Devil fern | ||||||||||||
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Typical fertile fronds |
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| Osmunda claytoniana | ||||||||||||
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The devil fern ( Osmunda claytoniana ) is a species of the king fern genus ( Osmunda ) within the family of the king fern family (Osmundaceae). It is native to East Asia and eastern North America. An English-language common name is interrupted fern.
description
Osmunda claytoniana grows as a perennial herbaceous plant . Like other species of the Osmundaceae family , the devil fern forms very long rhizomes with stem bases from the previous year. Osmunda claytoniana forms small, dense clonal colonies, spreads locally over the rhizomes and often forms witch rings . The leaf fronds are double-pinnate (bipinnate), 40 to 100 centimeters long and 20 to 30 centimeters wide. The leaf blade is formed by alternating segments that form an arch that tapers towards the tip. The lower end is slightly narrower than the rest because the first segments are shorter. Three to seven short, fertile segments are located in the middle of the frond, which led to the common English name interrupted fern ( English interrupted = interrupted). The English term "interrupted" ( German interrupted ) describes the gap in the middle of the fronds, which remains when the fertile segments wither and eventually fall off. If they are absent, the plant appears very similar to the cinnamon fern ( Osmundastrum cinnamomeum ) in all stages . At the base of the segments, however, the two types can be distinguished: Where the cinnamon fern has typical felt-like trichomes , the few that are present in the devil fern are extremely short and usually only clearly visible with a magnifying glass .
hybrid
Osmunda × ruggii is a hybrid of Osmunda claytoniana and Osmunda spectabilis . The hybrid is considered significant because it suggests a closer genetic relationship between the two species, at least closer than that between Osmunda claytoniana and Osmunda cinnamomeum (a fact that ultimately led to the separation of Osmunda cinnamomeum from the genus Osmunda into its own genus Osmundastrum ) . Osmunda × ruggii is sterile and only known from two natural populations, although the parent species are common in many other areas.
Taxonomy
The first publication of Osmunda claytoniana was by Carl von Linné . The specific epithet claytoniana honors the British botanist from Virginia John Clayton .
distribution
Prehistoric distribution
The fossil Osmunda claytoniites is known from Europe . Leaf fragments resembling Osmunda claytoniana have been found in Triassic strata and described as the extinct Osmunda claytoniites . If it is only one species, it speaks in favor of a formerly circumboreal distribution. Osmunda claytoniana is considered an outstanding example of an evolutionary standstill. Paleontological evidence shows that this species has remained unchanged for at least 180 million years, even at the cell nucleus and chromosome level .
North America
In eastern North America, Osmunda claytoniana occurs in the following regions:
- Great Lakes region
- Eastern Canada: southern Manitoba , Ontario , Quebec (north to the tree line )
- east to Newfoundland and Labrador
- Eastern USA: northern New England south over the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coast to Georgia and Alabama
- westward across the USA to the Mississippi and its lowlands northward to the Midwest to the Great Lakes
Asia
In East Asia Osmunda claytoniana is found in the following subtropical and temperate areas : in the East Himalayas , south-central and east China , in Taiwan , on the Korean Peninsula , Ryūkyū Islands and Japan .
Locations
Osmunda claytoniana inhabits moist locations, mostly in forests, but also in more open habitats and biomes , but is rare in moors . It is often found together with the cinnamon fern as well as the ostrich fern and the perifarn ( Onoclea sensibilis ).
use
Medicinal plant
The Iroquois used Osmunda claytoniana as a remedy for blood and venereal diseases.
food
In contrast to the ostrich fern, the young, still rolled shoots of the devil fern are not ready to eat, as they taste bitter and tend to cause diarrhea. The stem bases and very young buds are edible. However, overuse could prevent sprouting and kill the plant specimens.
Cultivation
The devil fern is used as an ornamental plant in traditional natural gardens and in landscaping in forests. It is also used in renaturation projects . Its spreading foliage and the formation of colonies can be used to stabilize slopes and to protect against erosion .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interrupted remote profile . University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. ( Page no longer available )
- ↑ 4. Osmunda ruggii RM Tryon . Retrieved July 9, 2019.
- ↑ Asa Gray: Merritt Lyndon Fernald (ed.): Gray's Manual of botany - a handbook of the flowering plants and ferns of the central and northeastern United States and adjacent Canada , 8th edition, American Book Co., New York 1950.
- ↑ B. = Bomfleur, S. McLoughlin, V. Vajda: Fossilized nuclei and chromosomes reveal 180 million years of genomic stasis in royal ferns . In: Science . 343, No. 6177, March 2014, pp. 1376-1377. doi : 10.1126 / science.1249884 .
- ↑ Osmunda species . In: Native American Ethnobotany . Univ. Mich.-Dearborn College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
Other sources
- Gisèle Lamoureux: Fougères, prêles et lycopodes . Fleurbec, 1993, ISBN 978-2-920174-13-9 .
- CJ Phipps, TN Taylor, EL Taylor, NR Cuneo, LD Boucher, X. Yao: Osmunda (Osmundaceae) from the Triassic of Antarctica: An example of evolutionary stasis. In: American Journal of Botany , Volume 85, 1998, pp. 888-895
Web links
- R. David Whetstone, TA Atkinson: Osmunda. In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee (Ed.): Flora of North America North of Mexico. Volume 2: Pteridophytes and Gymnosperms. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1993, ISBN 0-19-508242-7 : Osmunda claytoniana - online with the same text as the printed work.
- Distribution map in the Flora of North America .