Floating
Fern
Ceratopteris
pteridoides
These
interesting tropical, aquatic ferns are found
in ponds and lakes in many parts of the world,
including North America. Floating Fern, is an
edible plant from South America. It is found growing
wild in Florida, along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi
and Louisiana.
This
plant produces dense
rosettes
of pale green, floating, sterile fronds that are
buoyed up with internal air pockets. The
leaves have a wavy margin and are egg shaped to
triangular and can have 3 to 5 lobes. Taller,
much-divided, larger, fertile fronds stand upright
in the center of these. Viviparous buds form in
the notches of the leaf margins. The
plants are easily propagated.
C.
thalictroides, commonly called Water Fern, Water
Sprite, or Water Hornfern, is a native to Madagascar
and eastern Asia. This species is grown in Japan
as a spring vegetable. This plant sometimes roots
into the mud. It grows from 21 to 30 inches above
the water and produces two types of light green
fronds; one kind is deeply divided and fertile
and the other kind is parsley-like and sterile.
Buds form in the notches of the fertile fronds
and produce new plantlets.
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