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ISSN 0857-1538
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It's a Fern's World...

Click to Bigger     When dinosaurs roamed the earth some 400 million years ago, various simply structured flora began to develop in small amounts. Some 60 million years after that (during the Carboniferous Age), ferns, as well as other forms of traditional flora, were prolific, growing as high as ten-story buildings (their incredible growth has been attributed to a desperate need to reach sunlight past the thick haze that covered the earth at that time). At the advent of the Permian Age, at which time the movement of the earth's continental shelves was accompanied by major changes and eruptions in the earth's atmosphere, severe and direct sunlight inflicted the earth with drought and soaring temperatures, destroying much of the fern that had earlier grown wild and unhindered...
Click to Bigger     In spite of the disruption and change that occurred over the many millions of years, both epiphytic and aquatic ferns have miraculously adapted, some of them extinguished and other ones sophisticated, growing rampant until this very second millennium of the Christian Era. Ferns must be appreciated for their strong resilience in spite of such adversity, not to mention additionally for their medicinal uses, and their agricultural and ecological value.
    In this day and age, however, such benefits and value obtained naturally is consistently seconded to technological innovation. The importance of forests and national parks has been denoted to accommodate industrialization. The promotion of conservation efforts cannot always answer to a higher demand for consumption and change. Let's just hope that in our quest for development and improvement, we do not disregard the fern, simply because we may have taken them for granted. Let us remember their well sought out place here on earth...