Ferns - Scientific Art Reproduction - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Reproduction engraving of: Ferns

Original title Filicinae - Laubfarne

Poster of Platycerium - Ferns of the class Magic Ferns (Filicinae), family Polypodiaceae

Illustration from the book Kunstformen der Natur, which is a collection of artistic lithographs of natural sciences published by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel between 1899 and 1904.

This naturalistic illustration is part of an overall style inspired by Ernst Haeckel, which greatly influenced the emerging Art Nouveau movement at the beginning of the ^20th century. This work, illustrating the impressive beauty and great diversity of the biological world, was complemented by a certain amount of scientific information, some excerpts of which are reproduced below.

This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!

Scientific classification:

 Phylium of Embryophytes (Diaphyta or Archegoniata)
Main class Pteridophytes (Pteridophyta)
Fern Class (Filicinae)
Family Polypodiaceae.

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Filicinae - Ferns :

The form-rich class of ferns (Filicinae or Filicariae) is mainly represented in temperate countries by delicate and small ferns. In tropical regions, however, these plants play a much more important role, forming on the one hand a remarkably beautiful component of virgin forests as imposing tree ferns, and on the other hand covering the branches and trunks of many trees as impressive pseudo-parasites or epiphytes. Among these epiphytes, the staghorn fern (Platycerium) illustrated here stands out for its striking decorative form. It is found not only in masses on trees in wild forests in the Malay Archipelago and other tropical countries, but also as an ornamental plant in gardens. The special shape of Platycerium is due to the division of labor or ergonomics of its leaves or "fronds." In most native ferns, these are all of similar formation: delicate green leaves, usually pinnate or multidivided, on the underside of which develop the brown fruiting masses (sori), composed of numerous spore-bearing capsules (sporangia); the microscopic cells they contain are the asexual germ cells (spores). In Platycerium, on the other hand, as in some other ferns, the plant develops two or even three different types of fronds; some, the vegetative leaves, serve only for the nutrition of the plant and do not produce spores; others, the spore-bearing leaves, produce the spores used for reproduction; a third form, the nidiform or mantle leaves, form a niche at the base of the fern in which dead plant remains accumulate and humus is formed. The roots of the fern grow in this fertile humus and draw their nourishment from it. As the pale green or yellow nest-like leaves soon die and new ones are always forming above them, brown cushions are created, often half a meter in diameter or more. The green vegetative leaves, on the other hand, hang from these cushions in the form of multidivided fronds that can reach several meters in length; they are usually branched dichotomously, like the antlers of a deer or elk (Platycerium alcicorne). The spore capsules develop on the underside of the fronds in different ways depending on the species, sometimes only at the base of certain vegetative leaves, sometimes over a large part of the lower surface of the leaf, sometimes at the tips of the branches.

Species present on the naturalist board of Ferns - Platycerium :

• Platycerium grande
• Platycerium stemmaria
• Platycerium hilli