The Pteridophytes are an economically important group of plants. Some of them are
- Pteridophytes are used in the horticulture. The different species of Selaginella are grown as the garden plants. Ruhmora adiantiformis is called the florist’s fern; since their leaf resists wilting they are used in the cut flower arrangements.
- Some of the ferns are used in handicrafts; petioles of certain ferns are used for making basketry and bracelets.
- Pteridium leaves are used for making the green dye.
- Club mosses are used as a dry industrial lubricant since its microscopic spore contains non-volatile oils. The spores are also used as flash powder in photography and also as finger print powder in forensic investigation.
- Some pteridophytes are eaten as food.
- Some are dinitrogen fixers example is the Azolla. It’s an economically valuable species which is used as a bio fertilizer. Since Azolla leaves contains symbiotic cyanobacteria that are able to convert atmospheric nitrogen to nitrate.
- Some members of pteridophytes are noxious weed like Salvinia, Pteridium which are weedy aquatic ferns.