Ceratopteris thalictroides (L.) Brogn. , common name is watersprite and water fern horn (university of florida). Ceratopteris thalictroides is apart of the Pteridaceae family (Van da Berg, 2004). This plant is aquatic to semi aquatic annual rhizomatous, perennial, herb (fern) (Spooner, 1997). It is commonly found in swamps, bogs, canals, ponds, lakes, ditches, marshes. The fern is a floating or rooted type of plant. Highly variable leaf shapes and ball-like sporangia on some emersed leaves. Reproduce by spores, not flowers (Van da Berg, 2004)
This species is currently not threatened.
No threats have been reported for this species.
The diagonistic description of Ceratopteris thalictroides is:
The watersprite is rhizomatous, perennial, herb (fern), to 0.4 m high, amphibious or aquatic; fronds succulent, 1-4-pinnate; sporangia in 2 rows, not in sori (Spooner, 1997). There can be several types and shapes on one plant: some emersed and some floating. The floating leaves are often thick and fleshy, with deep lobes on the margins. One form of emersed leaves may be somewhat wide and relatively flat. Another form of emersed leaves is stiff, finely divided, and frilly. The leaflets may resemble thick needles. These frilly leaves are the reproductive leaves. They have ball-shaped sporangia on the undersides. Sporangia are the structures in which spores are produced. Ferns reproduce from spores; they do not produce flowers (University of Florida, n.d). They have a unique characteristic as they have independent haploid and diploid life phases, a short life cycle, a simple genetic system, and reproduce by single-celled haploid spores (Van da Berg, 2004).
Aquatic or semi-aquatic fern, floating or rooted in soil, with short, erect rhizome and rosette-like tuft of leaves. Leaves dimorphous; sterile leaves with succulent petiole, sparsely scaly with broad, pale brown scales, filled with air canals, lamina of sterile leaves, membranous, glabrous, with evident anastomosing veins, pinnae irregularly shaped, ultimate lobes linear-oblong to elliptical; lamina of fertile leaves erect, ultimate lobes linear, margin revolute, covering the sporangia scattered individually along the veins. Reproduces by spores, not flowers. Spores tetrahedral, pale yellow, translucent, with irregular reticulum.
In addition to sexual reproduction by meiotic production of spores and subsequent gametophytes, Ceratopteris sporophytes have a prolific capacity for vegetative reproduction. Buds found in the axes of subdivisions of the frond can develop rapidly into plantlets (Hickok, Warne and Fribourg, 1995)
Similar plant species include- Acrostichum thalictroides Linnaeus and Ceratopteris cornuta (P.Beauv.) Lepr. (Van da Berg, 2004). Ceratopteris thalictroides has little evolution literature.
Ceratopteris shows a variety of morphological characters that are exhibited by supposedly unrelated and related families, therefore phylogenetic affinities have been uncertain (Hickok, Warne and Fribourg, 1995).
Ceratopteris thalictroides is cosmopolitan in distribution. Occurs throughout Australia, Asia, and America (spooner, 1997). It is a Pan-tropical species and widespread. There are three general types, known as the north type, the south type, and the third type.
West Australian sites are: Central Kimberley, Dampierland, Northern Kimberley, Ord Victoria Plain, Pilbara, Victoria Bonaparte, Kimberley, Ashburton, Broome, Derby-West Kimberley, Halls Creek, Wyndham-East Kimberley (Spooner, 1997).
Native Countries include: Angola (Angola); Australia; Brazil; Burundi; Cameroon; China (Guangdong, Guangxi); Colombia; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Costa Rica; Côte d'Ivoire; Ecuador; El Salvador; Ethiopia; French Guiana; Gabon; Ghana; Guam; Guatemala; Guyana; India (Kerala, Tamil Nadu); Jamaica; Japan (Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku); Liberia; Madagascar; Mexico; Micronesia, Federated States of; Mozambique; Namibia (Namibia (main part)); Nepal; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Panama; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Puerto Rico; Senegal; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Solomon Islands; Somalia; South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal); Sri Lanka; Sudan; Suriname; Swaziland; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Togo; Uganda; United States (Florida); Venezuela; Viet Nam; Zambia; Zimbabwe" (Irudayaraj, V. 2011)
Ceratopteris thalictroides occurs in semi shaded localities mostly rooted in mud, occasionally free floating and common in paddy fields and ponds. Their system is freshwater. In or near creeks or swamps, in pools or on wet rock ledges of waterfalls (Irudayaraj, 2011)
Ceratopteris thalictroides can be used as a green manure in rice fields (Van da Berg, 2004). The uncurled fronds are eaten as a salad or as a substitute for asparagus. Medicinally, this fern (both leaf and root) is used as poultice for skin problems, as a styptic to stop bleeding.. Ceratopteris species, including Ceratopteris thalictroides, are grown as ornamentals in aquariums, popularly called ‘water sprite’. They are useful for research because they have independent haploid and diploid life phases, a short life cycle, a simple genetic system, and reproduce by single-celled haploid spores. (Van da Berg, 2004)
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