Skeleton Fern Psilotum nudum
Other Common Name(s):
- Phonetic Spelling
- sy-LAH-tum NEW-doom
- Description
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Wisk Fern is a native fern-like plant that lacks many of the typical features of vascular plants like leaves and flowers. They look like stems with yellow sporangia balls. They are often found as weeds in the nursery industry. They can be either terrestrial or epiphytic. Stems are erect when terrestrial, and are often pendulous when epiphytic and branching dichotomous. Branches are numerous and triangular. This plant is pantropical and is prized as a rare primitive vascular plant that can become a noxious weed in greenhouses.
Quick ID Hints:
- Stems are dichotomous and triangular
- Sporangia united trio and yellowish
- Leaf-like enations remote, much less than an inch in size
- See this plant in the following landscape:
- Cultivars / Varieties:
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- Tags:
- Cultivars / Varieties:
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- Tags:
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Attributes:
- Genus:
- Psilotum
- Species:
- nudum
- Family:
- Psilotaceae
- Life Cycle:
- Perennial
- Country Or Region Of Origin:
- Tropics and Subtropical areas
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Whole Plant Traits:
- Plant Type:
- Native Plant
- Perennial
- Weed
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Fruit:
- Fruit Description:
- Does not produce fruits, produces spores in yellow spherical sporangia.
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Leaves:
- Hairs Present:
- No
- Leaf Description:
- This plant lacks leaves. There are leaf-like enations that are remote, triangular-subulate, and much less than in inch long. Sporangia is in trios, and unites to form a synangium, yellow or tinged brown.
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Stem:
- Stem Color:
- Green
- Stem Is Aromatic:
- No
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Landscape:
- Landscape Theme:
- Native Garden
- Problems:
- Weedy
