Patrick Hadfield

It's not often pteridophytes make the news, and as someone who collected pteridophytes in New Caledonia forty years ago (and certainly came across Tmsipteris, though I can't see a record of having collected it), I'm rather chuffed.

(News reports keep calling it a fern. I can't quite remember all the taxonomy, but it's Psilotales, and I don't think that's ferns. I'll have to dig out my copy of Sporne to check it out.)

#Pteridophyte #Tmesipteris #genome #DNA

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cl44g57jv4mo

Tiny fern smashes world record for biggest DNA

A rare plant has the largest genome of any organism on earth - holding 50 times more DNA than humans.

BBC News
May 31, 2024 at 4:37pmWeb
Show threadBashStKidMay 31, 2024
@patrickhadfield They’re calling it a fork fern in the paper, but you’d know more than me …
Show threadPatrick HadfieldMay 31, 2024
@BashStKid I think the use of "fern" in this case is a popular term rather than technical - just as in, for instance, "asparagus fern" (which is neither asparagus nor a fern!). It is definitely a Pteridophyte, though!