FERN TREE (Pannachedi)
| Name in Malayalam | : | പന്നച്ചെടി, വാൽമുരിച |
| Name in Hindi | : | फर्न ट्री |
| Botanical Name | : | Filicium decipiens |
| Medicinal Part | : | Fronds, rhizomes, and roots |
| Medicinal properties | : | Used in the treatment of Fever |
Description
The tree ferns are the ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level. Most tree ferns are members of the "core tree ferns", belonging to the families Dicksoniaceae, Metaxyaceae, and Cibotiaceae in the order Cyatheales. This order is the third group of ferns known to have given rise to tree-like forms. The two others are the Marattiales, a eusporangiate order that the extinct Psaronius evolved from, and the order Polypodiales where the extinct genus Tempskya belongs.Characteristics:
Fern Tree is a medium-sized tree, native to the Western Ghats. Leaves are pinnate, leaflets 6-8 pair, smooth, shining, opposite or some alternate, stalkless, linear oblong, 4-6 inches long, with a prominent midrib. Leaf spine has a leafy wing on either side between the leaflets. Flowers are small, numerous, unisexual, in erect narrow panicles, 6-8 inches long, in leaf axils. Sepals are narrow, smooth, persistent. Petals in male flowers as long as sepals, in female small. Disk is very hairy. Drupe is ovoid, 0.5 inch in diameter, purple shining.
The fronds of tree ferns are usually very large and multiple-pinnate. Their trunk is actually a vertical and modified rhizome, and woody tissue is absent. To add strength, there are deposits of lignin in the cell walls and the lower part of the stem is reinforced with thick, interlocking mats of tiny roots.
