TREE FERN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does tree fern mean? 

• TREE FERN (noun)
  The noun TREE FERN has 1 sense:

1. any of numerous usually tropical ferns having a thick woody stem or caudex and a crown of large fronds; found especially in Australia and New Zealand; chiefly of the families Cyatheaceae and Marattiaceae but some from Polypodiaceae

  Familiarity information: TREE FERN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TREE FERN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous usually tropical ferns having a thick woody stem or caudex and a crown of large fronds; found especially in Australia and New Zealand; chiefly of the families Cyatheaceae and Marattiaceae but some from Polypodiaceae

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("tree 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 "tree fern"):

black tree fern; Cyathea medullaris; sago fern; silver tree fern (a showy tree fern of New Zealand and Australia having a crown of pinnated fronds with whitish undersides)

Dicksonia antarctica; soft tree fern (of Australia and Tasmania; often cultivated; hardy in cool climates)

Cibotium barometz; Scythian lamb (Asiatic tree fern having dense matted hairs sometimes used as a styptic)

thyrsopteris; Thyrsopteris elegans (a terrestrial tree fern of South America)

angiopteris; Angiopteris evecta; giant fern (highly variable species of very large primitive ferns of the Pacific tropical areas with high rainfall)