Hospitalier 1

Shelby Hospitalier

HSE 101, Jessup

22 October 2019

Ferns Reproductive Anatomy: Spores

While trekking around the Rogue River Gorge of Jackson County, Oregon, I came across

a very large fern population. Species varied in size, color, and texture. But, they all had one thing

in common; raised dots on their underside. Taking note of this similar pattern, I focused my

research on the dot complexes of each fern.

Ferns are one of the oldest plant species on earth, marking back to the age of dinosaurs.

Located in the ​Plantae​ kingdom, they reside in the class: ​Polypodiopsida​ (Moran). ​ ​Recorded

today there are over 10,000 species of ferns. All of which are vascular, meaning they “do not

produce flowers or seeds” (Ferns). Instead they have spores (the “dot structures” I observed in

the field.) These are the raised dots located on a fern frond and vary in colors from black, brown,

and orange (Moran). Spores are formed in the sporangia of a fern, which is their reproductive

structures. A cluster of sporangia is called a sorus or sori. When a spore matures it becomes a

sporophyte (Ferns).

(Fern Life Cycle)

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Ferns are unique because they reproduce differently than most plant species. Sporophytes

leave the fern through meiosis, “ejecting into air when mature, carried by gravity, wind, water,

and animals” (​Polystichum​). Ending up in a new environment, they grow into a gametophyte.

Gametophytes contain “two reproductive organs”, meaning fertilization can occur “in the same

plant or two neighboring plants” (Ferns). The process of fertilization then creates a new

sporophyte which eventually matures into a new adult fern (Ferns). Now having gone full circle

around the reproductive cycle of a fern we can identify what I once observed as “underside dots”

as unique reproductive structures called spores.

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Works Cited

“Fern Life Cycle.” ​Science Learning Hub,​

www.sciencelearn.org.nz/image_maps/57-fern-life-cycle​. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.

“Ferns.” ​The Daily Garden​, ​www.thedailygarden.us/garden-word-of-the-day/ferns​. Accessed 22

Oct. 2019.

Moran, Robbin Craig. ​A Natural History of Ferns.​ Timber Press, 2004. Accessed 21 Oct. 2019.

“Polystichum Munitum.” ​Fire Effects Information System​,

www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/fern/polmun/all.html​. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.