Interesting Facts about Ferns

One part of our Greenbelt restoration site has so many ferns. I decided to read some articles about ferns and was fascinated by what I learned.

• Ferns have been on earth for 360 million years.
• The type of ferns we see now have been here for 45-50 million years.
• Dinosaurs ate ferns, conifers, cycads and mosses.
• Ferns were on earth 200 million years before flowers.
• Ferns are helpful in preventing or eliminating pollution because they remove heavy metals from the air and the soil.
• Today’s ferns are not edible because of toxicity. [Note: Maybe that is because of the heavy metal mentioned above.]
• Some ferns have a life span of 100 years.
• The height of ferns ranges from 2 inches to 30 feet.
• Compressed ferns turned into fossil fuel and became the basis for oil, gas and oil.
• Ferns reproduce from spores. They don’t have seeds or flowers.
• There are at least 12,000 types of ferns on earth today. There may be up to 20,000 different species.
• In North America there are 441 varieties of native ferns.
• Ferns are vascular, circulating water and nutrients through their veins.
• In the past, there were people who believed if they ate ferns they would become invisible. Still others believed ferns protected them against goblins and witches.

When I took this photo today, I imagined dinosaurs walking through this forest. Doing that reminded me of the Jurassic Park movies!

You can learn more about ferns from the articles below:

About Ferns

Fern

Fern Facts (Casa Flora)

Fern Facts (Soft Schools)

Five Fun Fern Facts

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Daily Prompt: Taper