Mystery Plant: 'Whiskfern,' Psilotum nudum

Three hundred sixty million years ago it looked a lot different outside. For one thing, it was a very damp, humid time over much of the earth. Don't worry, there wouldn't have been any dinosaurs to chase you around. (They came later, as did the cavemen).

But there was plenty of vegetation, of course. Large forests dominated major portions of the earth's landscape, including much of what is now Europe and North America. These forests didn't have any oak trees or elm trees, though. Oh, no. This was the “Age of the Ferns”, and I'm not talking about those little old things you buy in a flower pot to grow in your parlor, I'm here to tell you. The ferns back then, and their relatives, were major-league plants, some attaining the size of huge trees. Of course, then, just like today, the trees in forests eventually aged, died, and fell over. Over the several million years of the domination of these giant ferns and their "allies", untold tons of rotting vegetation accumulated steadily, and a major result of this was the slow development of enormous subterranean strata of coal. In fact, modern coal beds tend to be an extraordinarily rich source of the remains of ancient plants. Coal really is, literally, a fossil fuel if there ever was one.