Abstract Detail

Pteridology

Tessier, Jack [1].

New Fronds of Dryopteris intermedia Develop More Slowly When the Stipes of Overwintering Fronds are Broken.

Wintergreen ferns keep their fronds for one year before replacing them with new fronds in the spring.  The overwintering fronds of Dryopteris intermedia (Common Wood Fern) provide carbon to the new fronds, and if these old fronds cannot become prostrate before winter they are damaged and broken.  I compared the vernal development of new fronds in D. intermedia between plants whose old fronds were intact and those whose stipes had been experimentally broken in the fall to determine the importance of the softening of the base of the stipe in old fronds to the development of new fronds.  Plants whose old fronds had broken stipes had a one week delay in the development of their new fronds at each developmental stage from bud opening to full expansion of the frond.  This delay demonstrates that the evolutionary development of the stipe hinge was critical to the functional benefit associated with new frond development in the wintergreen leaf habit in ferns. 

1 - SUNY Delhi, Liberal Arts And Sciences, 454 Delhi Dr., 722 Evenden Tower, Delhi, NY, 13753, United States

Keywords:
temperate forest
fern
leaf phenology
northeastern United States
wintergreen.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: PTER1, Pteridology I
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Monday, July 27th, 2020
Time: 10:00 AM
Number: PTER1001
Abstract ID:270
Candidate for Awards:None