Loxsomataceae

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Animals & Nature

Loxsomataceae

plant family

Also known as: Loxomataceae

Written by George Yatskievych

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Category: Animals & Nature

Also spelled:: Loxomataceae

Related Topics:: tree fern; Loxsoma; Loxsomopsis; Loxsoma cunninghamii; Loxsomopsis pearcei

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Loxsomataceae, small family of primitive ferns (order Cyatheales) comprising two monotypic genera. Loxsoma cunninghamii grows only in northern New Zealand, whereas Loxsomopsis pearcei occurs along the Andean mountain range from Bolivia northward to Costa Rica. The family is considered to have a relictual distribution—that is, the two isolated modern species have been interpreted as the only living examples of a formerly more diverse assemblage, the presumed related species all having become extinct long ago.

Both species have long-creeping rhizomes and highly divided leaves. The sori are enclosed in pouchlike membranous flaps of tissue (indusium) with the sporangia (spore-producing structures) protruding from the mouth. Spores are globose (tetrahedral).

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