Horsetail ferns

Carboniferous 345 Myr Climate cools, marked latitudinal gradients. Extensive forests of early vascular plants, especially club mosses, horsetails, ferns. Coal beds form. Amphibians diversify first reptiles appear. Radiation of early insect orders... 

A comparison of Tables I and II shows that the major coal measures of the world were derived from several quite different floristic assemblages. Thus the plants that gave rise to coals in Europe and the east and midwest of North America in the Carboniferous were part of a complex flora that included ferns, seed ferns, horsetails, lycopods and conifer precursors. Except for the conifer precursors, lignified xylem tissues tended to be minimal in these plant groups and unusually large leaves with extensive waxy cuticles were characteristic of three of the groups. 

Vascular plants a) Seedless plants Ferns, horsetails, club mosses 13,000... 

Fungal associations with the lower land plants, including mosses, liverworts, horsetails, lycopods, ferns, and similar plants have been observed. These associations are similar to the endomycorrhizal, ectomycorrhizal and endophytic associations found in the more recently evolved gymnosperms and angiosperms. Thus far, there has not been a search for the natural products associated with these fungal symbionts it is... 

All the coal we mine deep underground today is made up of the remains of plants that grew around three hundred million years ago — huge tree ferns, giant club mosses and horsetails. They thrived in the hot, humid climate, died and tumbled to the ground. During the ages they were covered by other dead trees and by layers upon layers of mud. Eventually, pressure and heat turned them into coal. 

ABA is ubiquitous in higher plants. It has also been identified in gymnosperms, ferns, horsetails, lycopods and mosses, but not in liverworts (3, 39). In the latter group lunularic acid appears to take the place of ABA as a growth inhibitor (3). 

Vascular plants (flowering plants, gymnosperms, ferns, horsetails, lycopods, Psilotum) have vessels which conduct fluid through the plant (see text p. 555-556 and Ch. 32) ... 

Plants that can cause CNS stimulation include larkspur, locoweed, lupine, water hemlock, and fi-tweed. Common plants that produce CNS depression are black locust, bracken fern, horsetail, milkweed. 

Among the land plants, two large groups with more than 30 000 species depend on water for fertilization [32, 35, 73, 85, 98], These are the Bryophyta or liverworts, hornworts, and mosses, and the Pteridophyta or lycopods, horsetails, and ferns. In both groups, two generations alternate between the gametophyte and the sporophyte plant. Within the... 

By far the best known xylans are those of the terrestrial plants, but within this group there are large gaps in chemical information. Since xylans are the major components of the hemicellulose fractions of woods and are abundant in cereals, they have been studied extensively from these sources. Very much less is known of the xylans of non-commercial groups of plants and almost nothing at all of those of mosses, liverworts, horsetails and ferns. What follows must, therefore, be considered as a very incomplete summary. 

All the data and hypotheses reviewed above, and many more not mentioned, are in conflict with a simple fact (Foissner, 2006, 2008 Fig 5.2 see also Chapters 9-12) mushrooms, mosses, ferns, lichens and horsetails have restricted distributions although their distribution means (spores) are produced in masses and in the size of most protists (< 100 pm). Further, hundreds of bacterial and fungal pests had regional or continental distribution before they were dispersed by humans. This is why I believe that, for example, air currents and the size of the organisms have little influence on their distribution. This has been supported by a study on microscopic fungi (Taylor et al., 2006). Actually, we do not know the amount of stable populations established by dispersal in the active state. Based on the data discussed above, step-by-step distribution of both, in active and cystic states, may play a significant role in at least the euryoecious species and if many similar habitats occur in a certain region. 

Pteridophyta In traditional classification systems, a division of the plant kingdom that included ferns, horsetails, and clubmosses, i.e. the nonseed-bearing tracheophytes. These are now classified as separate phyia Filicinophyta (ferns), Sphenophyta (horsetails), and Lycophyta (clubmosses). 

In terms of chemotaxonomy, very little work has been earned out on the chemical constituents of the Filicopsida (ferns), Lycopsida (clubmosses), Psilotopsida and Equisetopsida (horsetails), although it is reported that they contain lignin (32). In each case these conclusions were based upon preliminary results from nitrobenzene oxidations, e.g., it was reported that lignins of the Cyatheaceae (i.e., Dicksonia squarrosa, Cibotium harometz and Cyathea arborea) and Adiantaceae (i.e., Pteris podophylla) families were mainly derived from p-coumaryl 7 and coniferyl 12 alcohols, whereas in the... 

Pteridophytes. Evolution of the biochemical pathway to the lignins proper apparently first occurred with the appearance of the pteridophytes, the earliest remains of which to date come from the Devonian period (27). In extant plants, lignins are seemingly present in the ferns (Filicopsida), clubmosses (Lycopsida), horsetails (Equisetopsida), and the Psilotopsida [see... 

The Devonian was a notable time of both plant and animal evolution. The small, simple plants of the Silurian diversified and radiated so that the two main lines of vascular plants, the zosterophylls and trimerophytes (both now extinct) were already in existence at the start of the Devonian. Many new families emerged and by the end of the Devonian ferns and horsetails as well as the first seed plants, the gymnosperms, were abundant. These plants formed the first forests and the proliferation of plant life encomaged diversification in the arthropods. In the oceans brachiopods continued to proliferate but the Devonian is also known as the age of the fish because of the many new species that evolved. These include the coelacanth and pteraspis the latter, shown in Figme 4.5, was a jawless fish with a bony shield and... 

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