Ophioglossaceae

True Moonwort ( Botrychium lunaria, right) and Common adder's tongue ( Ophioglossum vulgatum )

The adder's tongue plants ( Ophioglossaceae ) are a family of ferns. It comprises a total of about 80 always isospore species.

Features

The buds plant is nodding. The growth does not occur at a vertex cell, but with a group of Intitialzellen. Rhizome and stems are fleshy. Root hairs are absent. Each year, only one frond is usually formed, which is not rolled during growth. The sheet is a three-dimensional space and consists of a fertile frond ( yellow ) and a sterile ( green ) part. The fertile part consists of a single sporophore, which originates at the base, or along the Trophophyll - stem and at the base of the leaf blade - Trophophyll. The sporangia are large, do not have an annulus, the walls are made of two layers of cells ( eusporangiat ). The spores are round to tetrahedral. Are formed per sporangium over 1000 spores.

The prothallia are greatly reduced, live underground without chlorophyll and feeding on their mycorrhizal fungi. The prothallus may be several years old. The antheridia and archegonia are sunk into the prothallus. The embryo can also last for a few years underground in some species.

The basic chromosome number is x = 45 (46).

Occurrence

The species live mostly terrestrial, rarely epiphytic. They are mainly in the temperate and boreal zones before, some species pantropical.

Genera

Worldwide, only four genera with about 80 species before:

• Diamond ferns ( moonwort; Botrychium Sw. )
• Helminthostachys Kaulf.
• Mankyua B.Y. Sun, M.H. Kim, C. H. Kim, described with the kind Mankyua chejuensis BYSun et al., In 2001 from Korea from the island of Cheju.
• Snake tongues ( Ophioglossum L.)