Unit 70 (070)

1. Fern Life Cycle or Reproductive Cycle

The Angiosperms or flowering plants , and the Gymnosperms or conifers both produce

seeds which can be sown to grow the mature plants.

Division Polypodiophyta or the Ferns, produce spores which do not grow the mature

fern. Instead the spores produce small kidney shaped gametophytes, which in turn

produce the mature fern. The gametophytes produce male and female structures

which fertilize and produce the mature fern.

The spore holding sporangia are arranged on the back or the fern frond or leaf, and the

pattern of their arrangement is distinctive. A few ferns like Matteuccia and Onoclea

produce a separate structure or stalk which contains the sporangia.

2. The Fern Plant

Fern leaves are called fronds and the petioles or leaf stalks are called stipes.

Botanically, leaf and petiole only apply to Angiosperms or flowering plants.

3. Pteridology

Pteridology is the study of Ferns; a pteridologist is one who studies ferns.