What does ferns mean?

Definitions for ferns
ferns

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word ferns.


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Wikipedia

  1. ferns

    A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except the lycopods, and differ from mosses and other bryophytes by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients and in having 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. They 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. Ferns first appear in the fossil record about 360 million years ago in the late Devonian period, but many of the current families and species did not appear until roughly 145 million years ago in the early Cretaceous, after flowering plants came to dominate many environments. The fern Osmunda claytoniana is a paramount example of evolutionary stasis; paleontological evidence indicates it has remained unchanged, even at the level of fossilized nuclei and chromosomes, for at least 180 million years. Ferns are not of major economic importance, but some are used for food, medicine, as biofertilizer, as ornamental plants, and for remediating contaminated soil. They have been the subject of research for their ability to remove some chemical pollutants from the atmosphere. Some fern species, such as bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) and water fern (Azolla filiculoides) are significant weeds worldwide. Some fern genera, such as Azolla, can fix nitrogen and make a significant input to the nitrogen nutrition of rice paddies. They also play certain roles in folklore.

U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Ferns

    Seedless nonflowering plants of the class Filicinae. They reproduce by spores that appear as dots on the underside of feathery fronds. In earlier classifications the Pteridophyta included the club mosses, horsetails, ferns, and various fossil groups. In more recent classifications, pteridophytes and spermatophytes (seed-bearing plants) are in the division, or phylum, Tracheophyta.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. FERNS

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Ferns is ranked #47272 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Ferns surname appeared 449 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Ferns.

    86.4% or 388 total occurrences were White.
    5.5% or 25 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    3.5% or 16 total occurrences were Black.
    2.6% or 12 total occurrences were Asian.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of ferns in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of ferns in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of ferns in a Sentence

  1. Caleb Marshall Brown:

    The lack of horsetails, and rarity of cycads and conifers is surprising, given that these are very common in the surrounding flora, even within ferns, it looks like Borealopelta may have had a preference for certain types of ferns, while ignoring others.

  2. Jim Faust:

    Modern poinsettias are not your grandmother’s plants. Breeding has dramatically improved their consumer performance, back in the day, growers would place ferns or pine boughs in the pot along with the poinsettia to provide greenery, because the poinsettia leaves would fall off so quickly. Today’s poinsettias will last well into January if watered properly and provided enough sunlight.

  3. David Greenwood:

    The discovery of charcoal together with a fern-filled stomach opens a window into the biology of this large herbivorous armoured dinosaur as it suggested Borealopelta was likely a keystone herbivore that shaped the landscape by its grazing, and that it also grazed on the ferns growing in open areas created by wildfires, that is so cool.

  4. Paul Barrett:

    Instead of just feeding on mushy ferns or low-growing horsetails, it means they might have been much more important in munching tough plants like conifers or cycads, which suggests they may have been feeding on quite different things, maybe living in different environments from time to time, and even potentially acting as vectors for moving seeds and fruits around for those different types of plants.

  5. Ron Peters:

    When you start seeing ferns go brown overnight, it's like, 'Wow, I gotta get out of here,'.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

ferns#10000#31909#100000

Translations for ferns

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"ferns." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/ferns>.

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