Abstract
Pennsylvanian fossil-fern cuticles are notoriously difficult to extract, little can be found in the palaeobotanical literature, yet they can supply significant taxonomic/systematic, phytostratigragphic, and palaeoenvironment information. This is demonstrated for cuticles from “Pecopteris” polypodioides of the coal basins in the Czech Republic and Canada. “Pecopteris” polypodioides is a marattialean tree fern which was part of the peat-forming flora, growing in a wet environment. Due to this fact, cuticles are generally very thin, and we assume that their major function was to reduce the ability of fungal spores to germinate and bacterial to grow, thereby reducing the possibility of these agents to cause disease. The secondary function was to be a major barrier to water loss and reducing the wettability of pinnules.