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Resurrection fern (Pleopeltis polypodioides)

Resurrection fern is an epiphyte, meaning that it lives on other plants (e.g. live oak trees) and acquires nutrients and water from the atmosphere instead of the soil. They adhere to the bark of trees with rhizomes (root like structures). Resurrection ferns constantly appear to wilt but are then miraculously revived when rewetted. I actually conducted research on this species many years ago and was able to revive them almost daily without any noticeable ill effects. When the fronds curl up, you can see the sori (reproductive clusters) which are the brownish circles dotting the surface of the fronds. Sori are typical of ferns.

This special ability to be revived or resurrected is referred to as poikilohydric. This simply refers to an organism that can survive desiccation and is then revived with additions of moisture. They are unable to regulate their water loss and instead reach equilibrium with their environment. They often lose 75% or more of their water content and survive while most others plants will reach their wilt point after losing between 8-12% of their moisture. The permanent wilt point refers to the soil moisture being reduced to the point that plants can no longer take up the water that remains. Many other organisms are poikilohydric including lichens, green algae, bryophytes (i.e. mosses), etc. Few vascular plants are poikilohydric and many that are poikilohydric are also epiphytes.

This sequence was taken using a Canon Digital Rebel tethered to a laptop running the program RemoteCapture 2.7. The footage was shot over a 3 day period at 1 frame every 5 minutes. At about 2/5 into the sequence, I started to frequently mist the specimen to revive it.