Ferns

By: Rosangel Perez & Josseline Nunez

-Are an ancient lineage of plants, they have been around for more than 300 million years.

-Grow in many different habitats around the world.

-Ferns don’t have flowers or seeds, they reproduce via spores.

-Ferns are vascular plants.

Vascular Plants-Have two networks of tubes in their roots, stems and leaves, one network of tubes carries water and the other carries food made in the leaves to the rest of the plant.

-Steps of this process:

1-Water and nutrients from the soil enter through the roots.

2- Water tubes in the roots carry the water to water tubes in the stem.

3-Water tubes in the stem then carry the water to water tubes in the leaves, and some of the water evaporates into the air.

3- Food tubes carry food made in the leaves to food tubes in the stem and roots.

4- Some food tubes run all the way from the leaves down to the roots.

Structure

-Sorus: Cluster of small spore-producing structures covering the underside of a pinna.

-Blade: Main part of the frond, rich in chlorophyll.

-Adventitious roots: Roots that grow out of the rhizome, enabling the fern to anchor itself to the soil and absorb water and mineral salts from it.

-Rhizome: Stem usually found underground that grows horizontally, occasionally vertically, out of which adventitious fronds and roots grow.

- Fiddlehead: Immature fern frond; its coiled lip is shaped like the head of a fiddle.

- Petiole: Slender part of the frond connecting the blade to the rhizome.

- Pinna: Segment of the frond’s blade, the underside which bears sori.

- Frond: Fern leaf, originating at the rhizome, that bears sori and is specially adapted to capture light and perform photosynthesis.

Fern Life Cycle

Mature ferns produce fertile leaves (fronds) that carry spores. When the spores are released they germinate into tiny heart-shaped plants with male and female sex organs. Sperm cells are carried to the female sex organ in a film of water, and one fertilizes an egg cell. This grows into a new, spore-bearing fern.

Fig. New fern

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii

(Ferns)