Ceratopteris is the only genus among homosporous ferns that is exclusively aquatic. It is pan-tropical and classified in the Parkerioideae subfamily of the family Pteridaceae.[1]
Erect aquatic or subaquatic ferns of moderate size. Rhizome short, fleshy, horizontal and ascending to erect, loosely rooted in the mud or /- floating, radial, dictyostelic with numerous meristeles and medullary strands, young parts bearing thin, ovate, /- cordate, clathrate scales. Fronds stipitate, the stipes fleshy, with numerous longitudinal air canals, abaxially rounded and ribbed, adaxially flattened, vascular bundles in a peripheral ring, one with each rib and several to the adaxial side, and several smaller medullary strands; lamina dimorphic, sterile fronds /- spreading, 2 – 3-pinnatifid with broad membranous lobes, venation reticulate without included free veinlets, often with proliferous buds in the axils; fertile fronds erect, longer, narrower and more divided than the sterile, the lobes strongly recurved to completely cover the adiaxial surface, venation longitudinal, branching at the bases of the lobes. Sporangia solititary, scattered along the veins, exindusiate but protected by the continuous reflexed margin of the lamina, large, short-stalked, annulus broad, irregular, of 30 – 70 thickened cells, or lacking, containing 16 to 32 spores. Spores large, trilete, ribbed with irregular long meshes.[2]
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