Equisetum  is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. It is a "living fossil" as it is the only living genus of the entire class Equisetopsida, which for over one hundred million years was much more diverse and dominated the understory of late Paleozoic forests.

A diploid sporophyte phase produces haploid spores by meiosis (a process of cell division which reduces the number of chromosomes by a half).

Brake fern was discovered to have the ability to "hyperaccumulate" (absorb large amounts of) arsenic from soil. The fern was growing at a central Florida site contaminated with large amounts of copper arsenate in the soil. The discovery may lead to the use of this fern as a potential bioremediation plant.

Its fiddleheads are used as a cooked vegetable in Japan and are believed to be responsible for the high rate of stomach cancer in Japan. It is also one of the world's most important agricultural weeds, especially in the British highlands and often poisons cattle and horses.

Ferns are vascular plants differing from lycophytes by having true leaves (megaphylls) which are often pinnate. They differ from seed plants (gymnosperms and angiosperms) in their mode of reproduction, lacking flowers and seeds.

Sphagnum accumulations can store water, since both living and dead plants can hold large quantities of water inside their cells, plants may hold up to 1 billion times as much water as their dry weight depending on the species. The empty cells help retain water in drier conditions. Hence, as sphagnum moss grows, it can slowly spread into drier conditions, forming larger peatlands, both raised bogs and blanket bogs.

Botanically, mosses are non-vascular plants in the land plant division Bryophyta. They are small (a few centimeters tall) herbaceous (non-woody) plants that absorb water and nutrients mainly through their leaves and harvest carbon dioxide and sunlight to create food by photosynthesis.

The plant body of a hornwort is a haploid gametophyte stage. This stage usually grows as a thin rosette or ribbon-like thallus between one and five centimeters in diameter.

Colura zoophaga is a small epiphytic liverwort . It possesses elongated water sacs formed by the fusion of the upper leaf margin rolling inward down to the rest of the leaf. A funnel-shaped channel at the lower leaf margin leads to a small opening into the water sac and is covered by a movable lid that only open inward. It is because of this bladder-like configuration that these traps have been compared to those of Utricularia.

Isospora belli is a species of internal parasites. It is responsible for the condition isosporiasis. Autofluorescence aids detection.

Flabellidium spinosum was a species of moss in the Brachytheciaceae family. It was endemic to Bolivia. It is also known as the Santa Cruz Bryophyte.

Ceratium furca blooms because of coastal eutrophication. Blooms of this species cause toxic red tides (red-brown), damage fish gills and deplete dissolved oxygen causing anoxic conditions.

Butanol can be made from algae or diatoms using only a solar-powered biorefinery. This fuel has an energy density 10% less than gasoline, and greater than that of either ethanol or methanol. In most gasoline engines, butanol can be used in place of gasoline with no modifications.

Red tides are unrelated to movements of the tides.They are not necessarily red and many have no discoloration at all.

Eucheuma  is a group of red seaweeds representing the tribe Eucheumatoideae used in the production of carrageenan, an important product used in cosmetics, food processing, and industrial uses, as well as a food source for those living in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Fucus vesiculosus was the original source of iodine, discovered in 1811. It was used extensively to treat goitre, a swelling of the thyroid gland related to iodine deficiency.

The gametophyte may replicate using monospores, but produces sperm in spermatangia, and eggs in carpogonium.

Coralline algae are red algae in the order Corallinales. They are characterised by a thallus that is hard because of calcareous deposits contained within the cell walls. The colours of these algae are most typically pink, or some other shade of red, but other species can be purple, yellow, blue, white or gray-green.

C. merolae is a club-shaped, unicellular red algae that lives in highly acidic environments and in warm conditions. Merolae has a single chloroplast and a single mitochondrion, but lacks a vacuole and a cell wall. The organism's genome was the first full algal genome to be sequenced in 2004. Its plastid was sequenced in 2000, 2003 and its mitochondrion in 1998.

William Mitten  was the premier bryologist in the second half of the nineteenth century. A pharmaceutical chemist by trade and never a professional botanist, he classified and named thousands of bryophyte specimens which came into Kew Gardens from around the vast British empire.

The thallophytes are in the most primitive plants, lacking roots, stems, leaves, and conducting cells. The simplest thallophytes are in the subphylum of autophytic thallophytes, which include blue-green bacteria (or cyanobacteria, formerly known as blue-green algae), diatoms, and algae.

 Sparassis is a genus of parasitic and saprobic mushrooms characterised by its unique shape and appearance. This appearance can be described as similar to a sea sponge, a brain, or the head of  a cauliflower, from which it has been given its popular name.

Navicula is a genus of boat-shaped diatom. Navicula play an important role in global ecology, producing about a quarter of all the oxygen within Earth's biosphere and serving as keystone species in the food chain of many environments where they provide a staple for the diets of many aquatic species.

Raphid pennate diatoms are capable of gliding movement that is caused by the secretion of mucopolysaccharides, derived from vesicles or crystalline bodies, through the raphe. Araphid pennate diatoms lack a raphe and posses a central, unornamented area known as the sternum or pseudoraphe. No centric diatom has a raphe.

Craticula is a genus of diatom that lies on or in the top layers of sediments in the freshwater to brackish water environments it inhabits. In addition to frustule morphology the genus differs from closely related species by its sexual reproduction and movement in response to light.

Lecanoromycetes is the largest class of lichenised fungi. It belongs to the subphylum Pezizomycotina in the phylum Ascomycota.The asci (spore-bearing cells) of the Lecanoromycetes most often release spores by rostrate dehiscence.

All green algae have mitochondria with flat cristae. When present, paired flagella are used to move the cell. They are anchored by a cross-shaped system of microtubules and fibrous strands.

Myrmecia is a genus of green algae that is associated with lichens.

Schizochytrium is a genus of unicellular protists found in coastal marine habitats. They are assigned to the stramenopiles, a group which also contains kelp and various of micro-algae. Certain species produce large amounts of docosahexaenoic acid and are grown commercially for production of this oil for biofeeds, biomass and biofuels.

Completoria is itself monotypic, containing a single species, Completoria complens. The species is rare, known only from greenhouse cultures where it grows as an obligate intracellular parasite of fern gametophytes.

Fern fronds often bear sporangia, where the plant's spores are formed, usually on the underside (abaxial surface) of the pinnae, but sometimes marginally or scattered over the frond.

Asplenium listeri, commonly known as the Christmas Island Spleenwort, is a species of fern in the Aspleniaceae family. It is endemic to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the north-eastern Indian ocean.

An oocyst with one sporoblast is released in stool of infected person. After the oocyst has been released, the sporoblast matures further and divides into two.

Also called resurrection fern this autotroph is interesting in that it appears to resurrect from the dead. It lives in very dry climates and when there is a lack of water, it shrivels up into a grey ball and can stay like this for a number of years. When it finally rains, the resurrection fern grows and turns green. 

Chara often grows at the bottom of lakes in fresh and also some brackish waters one to six metres deep. Chara is common in freshwater areas with silty or sandy beds. It is usually more noticed in droughts when the water level drops.

Oscillatoria is part of the blue-green Algae (Cyanobacteria) family. It is blue-green in colour, usually free floating, cylindrical or sometimes slightly tapering, unbranched filaments in aquatic environments. It is implicated in irritation of skin and mucous membranes suffered by people while swimming.

Gyromitrin is a toxin and carcinogen present in several members of the fungal genus Gyromitra, most notably the false morel G. esculenta. It is unstable and is easily hydrolyzed to the toxic compound monomethylhydrazine, a component of some rocket fuels.

Oscillatoria is blue-green in colour, usually free-floating or entwined with other algae. It is widespread. There are approximately 150 known species of which 47 are known to occur in Australia. Some species causes contact irritation leading to severe dermatitis.

The Beefsteak fungus is large, dark-red and slimy on top, and pale-yellow underneath. Its flesh resembles a raw steak (hence, the common name) and when the fungus is young, it oozes red droplets that look like blood. It is edible.

Baker's Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is used to make bread, beer and wine, during which process, sugars such as glucose or sucrose are fermented to make ethanol and carbon dioxide. Bakers use the fungus for carbon dioxide production, causing the bread to rise.