Big discoveries! Anxi Futian found 300 million-year-old living fossils or pine leaf ferns

Quanzhou Network on October 25 (reporter Wu Zhiming) "Major discoveries, Anxi Futian found 300 million years ago living fossil - pine leaf fern. Recently, a circle of friends of Zhang Jinbin, a cadre stationed in Baitao Village, Futian Township, Anxi, has attracted the attention of many netizens. The reporter learned from the relevant experts of the Municipal Forestry Bureau yesterday that from the pictures provided should be pine leaf fern, pine leaf fern is indeed a plant of the Devonian era more than 300 million years ago, is one of the oldest and most primitive vascular plants in the world, and is also the oldest and most primitive terrestrial higher plant.

These plants are thought to be pine leaf ferns (courtesy of Zhang Jinbin)

Yesterday, the reporter contacted Zhang Jinbin. According to his introduction, recently Quanzhou wanted to compile the "New Compilation of Quanzhou Materia Medica", in April this year, Jinjiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and some green herbal medicine enthusiasts went to Futian Township to find him to shoot herbs together, and in a stone crevice in Futian Farm, they stumbled upon this plant. "Because of their common interest in herbal medicine, we often communicate together, and when we saw the plant, we unanimously recognized it at the beginning, because of the unique clinical effect of 'stone parasitism', several folk herbalists were particularly sensitive to it." Stone parasitism' is the name of Quanzhou herbal medicine, and after checking the information, I learned that its plant name is called pine leaf fern. We also consulted lin yanyun, a forestry expert, who is an authority on the plant community in Quanzhou. In July this year, when Zhang Jinbin and the Quanzhou Materia Medica Specimen Collection Team went deep into Baitao Village, Yunzhongshan Provincial Nature Reserve and Futian Farm to collect Materia Medica specimens, it was also at Futian Farm, not far from the last discovery, that they photographed this plant again, and there were about 6 plants in total in the two places.

The reporter checked the data and found that the pine leaf fern is a plant of the pine leaf fern genus in the pine leaf fern family, also known as the pine leaf orchid, which is a perennial herb that is epiphytic on the trunk or rock. In the List of Rare Plants of China, pine leaf fern is the first rare and endangered plant among ferns, but it is not included in the list of protected plants. The book records: "Pine leaf ferns are produced in a vast area south of the southern slope of the Qinling Mountains, and in other parts of the pantropics. It is an ancient relict (living fossil) plant and is considered to be the oldest existing fern. "Pine leaf fern, which existed more than 300 million years ago in the Devonian Period, is one of the oldest and most primitive vascular plants in the world, and is the oldest and most primitive terrestrial higher plant known today."

Lin Yanyun, a retired cadre of the Quanzhou Forestry Bureau, said that from the pictures provided by Zhang Jinbin, the plant should be pine leaf fern. He said that from the geographical distribution point of view, it is not surprising to find pine leaf fern in Futian, according to the Fujian Flora, several counties and cities in southern Fujian and Yongtai and Changle are produced, and he has also seen it in Nan'an Xiangyun, but the plant is not common. However, he also said that the real confirmation of whether it is pine leaf fern, to see the plant specimen will be clear, "there is a kind of stone vine stone pine, in the absence of spores, looks very similar to pine leaf fern." ”

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Pine leaf fern

Also known as pine leaf orchid, it is a perennial herb that epiphytes on tree trunks or rocks. There are creeping underground stems, 2-pronged branches, with only hairy absorption structures and false roots; aboveground stems are erect or drooping, 15–80 cm tall; and the leaves are degenerate and extremely small. It is distributed in Taiwan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places. Epiphytic in the native forest at an altitude of 200-2000 meters, it is propagated in separate plants. Sexually prefers warm, humid and semi-shaded environments. The branches are slender and the whole plant can be used for medicinal purposes.