Academics

PLANTS IN THE SAN JUAN COLLEGE
PLANT ROOM
AND ATRIUM LOBBY AREA

Table of Contents

• Lower Plants
• Pteridophytes and relatives
• Gymnosperms
• Angiosperms

I. Lower Plants:
Assorted algae and protozoans in "The Pond" tank
Assorted algae and rotifers in the small cyanobacteria tank
Assorted mosses and liverworts in carnivorous plant tank.

II. Pteridophytes and relatives:

The most primitive vascular plant with sporangia, an epiphyte in FL and AZ, reported from NM. Growing under the Cibotium. A sprig may be taken for classroom use.

A minute floating fern mutualistic with cyanobacteria often grown in rice paddies for nitrogen fixation.

Nice tree sized specimen with dramatic circinnate vernation and indusiate sori. Not small enough to bring into the classroom, but fronds may be removed for classroom use. Tree ferns are classified by trunk and frond scale characteristics.

An unusual, magnificent epiphytic fern with both sterile, clasping, oak leaf shaped fronds and dissected fertile fronds. Rhizomes are densely hirsute, thick and clasping. Unidentified at this time, it does not appear to be native to North America. Arrived as a volunteer in a potted cycad, which has since passed on to the big rainforest in the sky.

Nice typical fern with everpresent sori. Reproduces vegetatively by long, thin rhizomes. A native of south Florida, where it often pops up in parking lots.

Another native of south Florida that produces tuberous growths which may produce new plants. Does not sporulate readily. Darker green than N. exaltata.

A nice specimen with unusually shaped round segments. Slightly drought adapted.

Tropical fern which grows epiphytically in the old leaf bases of palms and cycads. Leaves turn golden yellow or rusty in winter. Sporulates readily with naked sori. Rhizome is thick, pubescent and clasping. Another native of south Florida.

An unusual epiphytic fern with flat sterile fronds and antler-like fertile fronds. Fine silky pubescence gives this plant a silvery appearance. The sporangia are located on the frond tips. Grows on tree trunks in Australia, where it may weigh hundreds of pounds and house a possum or two.

III. Gymnosperms

Unusual primitive pine relative. Relatives found in southern hemisphere only.

Cycad from southern Mexico. Dioecious with central cone. Cycad species number about 300 or so, a far cry from when they were the dominant plant during the Age of Dinosaurs (known to us botanists as the Age of Cycads). Cycad roots are mutualistic with blue-green algae. They also produce lots of terrible long-term, slow-acting toxins. Many people lost a good deal of neurological function during and after WWII in the South Pacific when they had very little to eat and turned to cycad seeds for food. They don't seem to support many pests.

Also from southern Mexico, very spiny version of above.

Deciduous gymnosperm with split fan leaves. Dioecious. Single seed surrounded by thick, foul smelling seed coat. Thought to be known only from cultivation, but recently discovered native grove in China appears to be the last relict population. Source of the herbal preparation for improved memory.

A linear leaved gymnosperm. A small tree from se.Asia.

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