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tree fern
(redirected from Tree ferns)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia 0.04 sec.
tree fern, any fern fern, any plant of the division Polypodiophyta. Fern species, numbering several thousand, are found throughout the world but are especially abundant in tropical rain forests. The ferns and their relatives (e.g.
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 having a treelike trunk. Sometimes other similar primitive plants are also called tree fern, e.g., species of cycad cycad (sī`kăd), any plant of the order Cycadales, tropical and subtropical palmlike evergreens.
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.

tree fern

Any of various ferns (especially those of the families Cyatheaceae and Marattiaceae) of treelike habit with a woody stem. Many attain heights over 50 ft (15.2 m). They are natives of humid mountain forests in the tropics and subtropics and of warm temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere. The family Marattiaceae contains six genera; one species, Angiopteris evecta, has leaves (fronds) 15 ft (4.5 m) or more in length and stems of 2–6 ft (60–180 cm). Now-extinct members of the family date to the Carboniferous Period (354–290 million years ago). Members of the family Cyatheaceae are very large, terrestrial ferns with trunklike, upright rhizomes; the nearly 1,000 species are grouped into seven genera.


tree fern
any of numerous large tropical ferns, mainly of the family Cyatheaceae, having a trunklike stem bearing fronds at the top

tree fern [′trē ‚fərn]
(botany)
The common name for plants belonging to the families Cyatheaceae and Dicksoniaceae; all are ferns that exhibit an arborescent habit.


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