ABSTRACT
Chinese viviparous ferns possess diverse flavonoids, which plays a vital role in medicinal activities. Ferns first appear in the fossil record 360 million years ago in the late Devonian period. Genetically similar to seed plants, ferns represent a critical clade for comparative evolutionary studies in land plants. Thus, as an early tracheophyte, Pteridophytes are an important outgroup for studying the evolution of wood, seeds, pollen, flowers and fruit among other economically important characteristics found in seed plants, as well as the evolution of development in these complex structures and the expansion of gene families associated with seed plant evolution. Naturally, some fern genera and families produce viviparous plantlets by asexual reproduction on the sporophyte fronds of Adiantum, Asplenium, Camptosorus, Cystopteris, Diplazium, Tectaria, Woodwardia, Cyathea arborea, Asplenium bulbiferum, Dennstaedtia scabra, Grammitidaceae, Hymenophyllaceae and Vittariaceae. Even though, viviparous fern possess fewer or no abscisic acid (ABA), viviparous ferns produce the secondary metabolites and important medicinal activities.
