The branch of botany devoted to the study of ferns, their structure, classification, and ecology.
Combines Latin 'filix' (fern) with Greek 'logia' (study of). The term crystallized in 19th-century botanical science as fern research became specialized enough to warrant its own field of study.
Filicology revealed that ferns are living fossils—some species are nearly identical to ferns that lived alongside dinosaurs, making them one of nature's greatest success stories spanning over 300 million years!
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