The secret life of ferns By Shauna Dobbie
Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum v. pictum).
Photo by Harum Koh.
Photo by Cranbrook Museum.
There are all kinds of details about meiosis and mitosis and diploid and haploid; if you’re into biology, I urge you to look into it, because it’s fascinating. To skip as many of the technicalities as possible, though, it works something like this. Sori If you look at the underside of a fern leaf, you may see dots, which
That is how new plants are born. Except with ferns. There is no flower. (“Flowering ferns” are really just gloxinia with ferny leaves.) They do not produce seeds. They produce spores, and a spore doesn’t produce a baby fern either. It produces a gametophyte, which produces the male and female cells that must meet to produce a fern.
Photo by David Stang.
How they reproduce Ferns are a whole different kind of plant. Grasses, orchids and most bulb plants start growing by sending up one leaf (monocot) and other plants send up two (dicots). Both have flowers (though they aren’t showy on grasses) that are fertilized, then the flowers turn to fruit and they set seed.
Ostrich fern (Matteucia struthiopteris).
Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides).
Types of hardy ferns Shade lovers Northern maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum) Zone 3 Dragon’s tail fern (Asplenium ebenoides) Zone 4 Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum v. pictum) Zone 4 Leather wood fern (Dryopteris marginalis) Zone 3 Rock fern (Polypodium virginianum) Zone 4 Braun’s holly fern (Polystichum braunii) Zone 4
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Appreciate a bit of sun Hart’s tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium) Zone 4 Lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) Zone 4 Male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) Zone 4 Ostrich fern (Matteucia struthiopteris) Zone 1 Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis) Zone 2 Cinnamon fern (Osmunda cinnamomea) Zone 3 Interrupted fern (Osmunda claytonia) Zone 3 Royal fern (Osmunda regalis) Zone 3 Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) Zone 4 Issue 1
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