Osmunda regalis, a cosmopolitan with the feet in the water

Its primitiveness is perhaps the feature that best defines and because of its survival over millions of years. Not only has he been able to get to this day almost unchanged, but has been so successful that today is one of the most cosmopolitan ferns of the Earth, it dwells in every continent temperate, subtropical and tropical regions, except Australia and New Zealand. It is found throughout Europe, the Americas (North, Central and South America), in Asia, Africa, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands, located in the southwest Indian Ocean. 

Fronds of an old Osmunda regalis with nearly two feet long in the bed of the Arroyo del Parron in the Natural Park of Los Alcornocales in the province of Cadiz in mid-May. (Double click on the photo to enlarge)

The origin of its name is very confusing, there are many theories, but most accepted the result makes the generic name of King Osmund, who reigned in Lower Saxony to the year 758 ac. The species name "regalis" (roial) would thus have the same origin and translates as: "Fern of King Osmund." Produces heteromorphic fronds: sterile and fertile. Its spores are a unique feature among the ferns, are green chlorophyll content, which facilitates germination.

The family Osmundaceae is an isolated group unrelated to other ferns. They have found fossils of primitive osmundaceae Permian strata dated between 289 and 248 million years old. Fossils of modern Osmunda have been found in Cretaceous sediments dated at about 65 million years. The Osmundaceae family includes four genera: Leptopteris, Todea, Osmundastrum and Osmunda.

Beautiful sterile frond above Osmunda regalis. Is very striking green color, highlighting the aqueous background on which it is rooted. The sterile fronds of this fern in optimal conditions can reach eight feet. (Double click on the photo to enlarge) 

New frond of Osmunda regalis the above, at first it upright stems and leaves as they grow leaning until its tip touches the water. Double clicking on the picture to enlarge you can see the very shaded aquatic habitat where they live. Just behind the frond is an outbreak of Equisetum telmateia. 

Young cultivated Osmunda regalis in the Botanical Garden El Aljibe of the province of Cadiz, which preserves and reproduces this relatively rare botanical treasure in Andalucia.

Frond of fern above cultivated with the feet in the water as he likes. The fronds are lanceolate, bipinnate. The pinnules are oblong and asymmetrical. 

Osmunda regalis sprouting in May after overwintering in the summit crater of a volcano in the center of the island of Faial in the Azores Archipelago, called Caldeira do Faial. To the left of the photo are several flowers of the ericaceae Daboecia azorica, Azorean endemic that grows like a carpet. On the frond are water droplets left by the passage of moisture-laden sea breeze, typical natural Macaronesian phenomenon called Horizontal Rain, which drains several times a day this wonderful archipelago lost in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Osmunda regalis grown in the magnificent Botanical Garden of Faial in the island of the same name of the Azores Archipelago. In this garden is planted in full sun and does not seem to affect him negatively, perhaps because of the high humidity of these Atlantic islands. 

Tender frond newly sprouted with the typical form coiled new growth of all ferns, which follow the Fibonacci mathematical principle. Is appreciated as a web fibrous sac that protects as it expands. The Osmunda regalis is deciduous, it loses its fronds in winter and resprout the following spring. 

Osmunda regalis fertile frond that grows upright and has two types of pinnae, the lower are similar to those of the sterile fronds, while the upper or apical pinnae are formed by groups of sporangia filled with green spores. Sporangia of the photo are still immature. (Double click on the photo to enlarge) 

Beautiful fertile fronds with mature sporangia, photographed in the Jardim Botânico do Faial in mid-May. If we give a small hit with a finger go out a cloud of spores that are dispersed by wind and water.

Another fertile frond of Osmunda regalis with mature sporangia. (Double click on the photo to enlarge)

Details of the sporangia frond above, which, unlike most ferns, not arranged in sori, but develop directly on the midrib of the pinnules.

Asplenoceterach barrancense, a small treasure

It is a hybrid extremely low. In the Soller Valley of Mallorca Island I know only a single individual in a crack in a limestone in the bed of a stream flowing down from the mountains surrounding the valley. Share the crack with one parent, the Ceterach officinarum ssp. officinarum and a Asplenium trichomanes ssp. quadrivalens. In its allotetraploid genome has 50% of chromosomes of Ceterach officinarum ssp. officinarum, 25% of Asplenium fontanum and 25% of Asplenium petrarchae ssp. bivalens. It is therefore a trihybrid with  chromosomes of three different ferns Aspleniaceae family, an allotetraploid with 144 chromosomes (2n = 144, n = 72).

Asplenoceterach barrancense in early June with the new well-developed fronds.

This hybrid was described to science in 1972 by German botanist Dieter E. Bennett and Wilfried Meyer, who gave the name "barrancense" to have found in the Barranco de Biniaraix in the Serra de Tramuntana, Mallorca Island. 

In this picture the three ferns are sharing the same crack: the Asplenoceterach barrancense, its parent Ceterach officinarum ssp. officinarum and a copy of Asplenium trichomanes ssp. quadrivalens.

Habitat of Asplenoceterach barrancense. At the same rock, in a more shaded area, there is a large population of its parent Asplenium majoricum. The torrent remains dry for most of the year. (Double click on the photo to enlarge) 

The probability of a spontaneous hybridization as it is as low as that for a person to touch the first prize in the Euromillions lottery. To place this wonder of nature was no need to fall into the same crack a spore of Asplenium majoricum and Ceterach officinarum. Should then germinate at the same time and give rise to two gametophytes, which were each a female oosphere and many antherozoids. Subsequently an antherozoid one of the two gametophytes swam in soil moisture with the movement of their flagella to the gametophyte oosphere other, that drew him with irresistible aroma of fitoferomone malic acid and fertilization took place. The fertilized oosphere generated a hybrid embryo, the Asplenoceterach barrancense, which grew very slowly until after 3 or 4 years its fronds lean over the edges of the crack.

Combined photography with the family, both parents and child trihybrid

Frond well developed in December. 

Like their parents, the Asplenoceterach barrancense supports the long months of torrid heat and extreme drought of Majorcan summer entering  in aestival lethargy, aestivation, completely dehydrating its fronds, which are rolled, shrink, take on a grayish-brown and appear dead. With the first autumn rains, at 24h, rehydrated fronds, are green, they expand, as if nothing had happened, so much so that the sporangia of sori just grow up and take advantage of the humidity to disperse the spores. 

Underside of two basal pinnae with sori Asplenoceterach barrancense about to mature and paleae covering the petiole, rachis and the underside of the pinnae, the legacy of his father Ceterach officinarum ssp. officinarum. (Double click on the photo to enlarge) 

Microscopic photograph of the rachis with paleae having an intermediate structure between the trichomes or glandular hairs of Asplenium majoricum and large paleae of Ceterach officinarum.

 
Photomicrograph of the underside of a pinna with sori partly covered by indusium and abundant paleae more narrow and filiform than the Ceterach officinarum. (Double click on the photo to enlarge)

Underside of another Asplenoceterach barrancense pinna of view at 40 magnification. 

Palea of Asplenoceterach barrancense in microns.

Mature Sori very similar to those of its parent Asplenium majoricum. Comparing the size of the frond with thumb that says we get an idea of the tiny size of the fern, which breaks all the schemes of the genetic probability. Its combination chromosome in a similar animal, equivalent to the spontaneous hybridization of a mule (a hybrid between a horse and donkey), which is the Asplenium majoricum, and an African zebra with double chromosome ( impossible between animals, but in plants ), which is the Céterach officinarum ssp. officinarum, autotetraploid of ancestral Asplenium javorkeanum.


Asplenium fontanum--> X <--A.  petrarchae ssp. bivalens            Asplenium javorkeanum

( FF )                              (PP)                                                        ( CC )
                              l                                                                                                                           l
                              l                                                                                                                           l
       ( Hibridación interespecífica )                                                                               ( Apomeiosis )
                                                   l                                                                                                                          l                      
                              l                                                                                                                          l
                                V                                                                                                                        V 
            Asplenium majoricum -------> X <------- Ceterach officinarum ssp. officinarum 
  ( FFPP )                                   l                                ( CCCC )
     l
         l
        ( Hibridación interespecífica ) 
          l
          l
          V
                                                 Asplenoceterach barrancense      .........................
                ( FPCC )

Detail of mature sori indusium lifted revealing the sporangia. (Double click on the photo to enlarge) 

Sori of the parents of Asplenoceterach barrancense.

And to finish the proof of sterility, aborted spores, dead and partially decomposed unfeasible. Under the microscope there are very few spores and the few that seem to be practically empty or broken. Cultivating the spores in a lunch box after three years there was no germination.