Mention the uses of pteridophytes.
Answers
Answer:
The pteridophytes are used in Homoeopathic, Ayurvedic, Tribal and Unani medicines and provides food, insecticides and ornamentations. With very few exception ferns have not been widely used as a source of food. The fern stems, rhizomes, leaves, young fronds and shoots and some whole plants are used for food.
Answer:
(1) Food:
Like other plants, pteridophytes constitute a good source of food to animals. Sporocarps of Marsilea, a water fern, yield starch that is cooked and eaten by certain tribal.
(2) Soil Binding:
By their growth pteridophytes bind the soil even along hill slopes. The soil is protected from erosion.
(3) Scouring:
Equisetum stems have been used in scouring (cleaning of utensils) and polishing of metals. Equisetum species are, therefore, also called scouring rushes.
(4) Nitrogen Fixation:
Azolla (a water fern) has a symbiotic association with nitrogen fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae. It is inoculated to paddy fields to function as biofertilizer.
(5) Medicines:
An anthelmintic drug is obtained from rhizomes of Dryopteris (Male Shield Fern).
(6) Ornamentals:
Ferns are grown as ornamental plants for their delicate and graceful leaves.