Life cycles of plants
The fern life cycle is one of the most primitive form of plants that we find on Earth. Even though ferns have leaves and roots, they don’t grow from a seed and do not produce flowers. However, these plants are also grown in some places to gather food, as ornamental plants and also for healing damaged soils.
Here are 5 interesting things about the life cycle of ferns!
1. The Habitat
It is a wrong idea that ferns grow only in shady woodlands. Ferns can grow in a huge variety of habitats from mountain tops to rocky deserts. They are mostly found in shady forests where there is plenty of water, and other tropical trees areas. Ferns can also grow in rock crevices and in acid wetlands such as swamps.
2. Spores
Ferns reproduce primarily through the use of spores. These spores have structures that are able to disperse away from the parent fern and adapt to the environmental conditions.
3. Fern Life Cycle Process
The life cycle process of a fern consists of five basic stages.
First, the plant produces spores on its leaves which are usually like small brown dots.
Then the spores leave the plant and settle in conditions as they start to grow through a process called photosynthetic prothallus until they become a gametophyte.
These gametophytes then produce a quantity of sperms and eggs which eventually start the fertilization process.
Finally, the fertilized egg continues to grow until it becomes a fern.
4. Ferns Structure
Basically a fern consists of three structures: stems, leaves and roots.
The stems are like the skeleton of the whole plant consisting of a semi-woody trunk.
In addition, a fern produces three types of leaves which are biologically called trophophyll, sporophyll and brophophyll. The main difference about these leaves is the amount of spores they produce starting from the trophophyll which produces no spores and ending up with the brophoyll which produces a huge amount of spores.
Like the majority of plants, ferns have roots to absorb water and nutrients from the soil.
5. Basic Fern Uses
Nearly all ferns are edible and some species such as the bracken are specifically used for food.
Other ferns such as the mosquito fern are also used to make natural fertilizers which are then spread on fields.
Furthermore, ferns are very common in the florist trade since they can make very nice ornamental plants because of their long and green leaves.
Ferns existed on our planet since the Triassic era of the dinosaurs and this makes it one of the oldest inhabitants of Earth!
Source: Adapted from http://www.doityourself.com/stry/5-things-to-know-about-the-fern-life-cycle