FLOWERING FERN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does flowering fern mean? 

• FLOWERING FERN (noun)
  The noun FLOWERING FERN has 2 senses:

1. Australasian fern with clusters of sporangia on stems of fertile fronds

2. any fern of the genus Osmunda: large ferns with creeping rhizomes; naked sporangia are on modified fronds that resemble flower clusters

  Familiarity information: FLOWERING FERN used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLOWERING FERN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Australasian fern with clusters of sporangia on stems of fertile fronds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

flowering fern; Helminthostachys zeylanica

Hypernyms ("flowering fern" is a kind of...):

fern (any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores)

Holonyms ("flowering fern" is a member of...):

genus Helminthostachys; Helminthostachys (one species: terrestrial fern of southeastern Asia and Australia)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any fern of the genus Osmunda: large ferns with creeping rhizomes; naked sporangia are on modified fronds that resemble flower clusters

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

flowering fern; osmund

Hypernyms ("flowering fern" is a kind of...):

fern (any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flowering fern"):

ditch fern; French bracken; king fern; Osmunda regalis; royal fern; royal osmund (large deeply rooted fern of worldwide distribution with upright bipinnate compound tufted fronds)

interrupted fern; Osmunda clatonia (North American fern having tall erect pinnate fronds and a few sporogenous pinnae at or near the center of the fertile fronds)

cinnamon fern; fiddlehead; fiddlehead fern; Osmunda cinnamonea (New World fern having woolly cinnamon-colored spore-bearing fronds in early spring later surrounded by green fronds; the early uncurling fronds are edible)

Holonyms ("flowering fern" is a member of...):

genus Osmunda (type genus of the Osmundaceae)