Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. With each fern no wider than an inch, mosquito ferns turned ...

The Azolla Event was an environmental catastrophe for life in the Eocene era 49 million years ago. Today, though, it is a source of inspiration--even optimism--in dealing with human-driven climate ...

If you ever watch a duck float across a pond, gobbling up the vegetation coating the surface, that bird is way ahead of its time. The buoyant greenery is azolla, a tiny fern that grows like crazy, ...

What it’s about: That time that ferns completely upended all life on Earth. Azolla is a freshwater fern often used as fertilizer in rice paddies, but 49 million years ago, it spread so far, and ...

Kathleen Pryer is professor of biology at Duke University and president of the American Fern Society. Fifty million years ago, the Earth was so warm that turtles and alligators thrived in lush forests ...