10/13/16

will be established in the ground

by true roots

Pteridology: study of fern and fern

allies

Types of Spores production:

Seedless Vascular Plants

Homospory vs Heterospory

1. Pteridophyte: all seedless

vascular plants (fern and fern
allies)
2. Pteridophyta (Monilophyta): fern
division
3. Lycopodiophyte (Lycophyta):
fern allies

Main difference: separation of sexes at

different points in the lfie cycle
Homospory:

Fern Life Cycle

1. A sporophyte (diploid) phase
produces haploid spores by
meiosis
2. A spore grows by cell division
into gametophyte (prothallus),
which typically consists of a
photosynthetic prothallus
3. The gametophyte produces
gametes
4. (often both sperm and eggs on
the same prothallus) by mitosis
5. A mobile, flagellate sperm
fertilizes an egg that remain
attached to the prothallus
6. The fertilized egg is now a
diploid zygote and grow by
mitosis into a sporophyte (the
typical fern plant)
In ferns, the sporophyte is
independent with gametophyte. (they
have a distinct body because they
already have true organs: roots, stem
and leaves)
Sporophyte stage > gametophyte
stage

Heteropspory

At the back of fronds: sporangia

Prothallus will decompose when
sporophyte already sprout >>

Unisexual gametophytes;
different spores (smaller : Male
spore; bigger: females)
Small spores (microscopores)
o Microgametophyte >>
sperms
Larger spores (megaspores)
o Megagametophyte >>>
eggs

Fern allies:
homosporous
e.g. Lycopodium : homsporous
Selaginella : heterosporous

Meiospores: spores of
homosporous
Miscrosporophyll:
megaasporophyll (heterospore):
meiosporophyll (homospore)

Gametophyte

Fronds (leaves):

one type of sporangium; one

type of spore (based on size)
Germinates to produce bisexual
gametophyte

Protahallus: photosynthetic
structure that is one cell thick,
usually heart or kidney-shaped,
3 to 10 mm long and 2 to 8 mm
broad
Produces gametes through its

Antheridia: small
spherical structures that
produce flagellate sperms
o Archegonia: flask-shaped
structure that produces a
single egg at the bottom,
reached by the sperm by
swimming down the neck
Rhizoids: root-like structures
(not true roots) that consist of
single greatly-elongated cells,
water and mineral salts are
absorbed over the whole
structure. Rhizoids anchor the
prothallus to the soil ; (no tissue
systems)
o

Sporophyte

Stems
Rhizome
Stolon (e.g.
Polypodiaceae)
Erect semi-woody
trunk (e.g.
Cyatheaceae)
Reaching up to
20m in a few
species (e.g.
Cyathea brownie
and Cyathea
medullaris).
May vary: erect,
coloniferous, accaulecent,
stoloniferous
Rhizomes (embedded on
the ground) , stolon
(above the ground) : both
horizontal
(Frond):
Photosynthetic
Circinate vernation: the
unrolling of a tight spiral
called a crozier or
fiddlehead
Leaves are divided into
two types:

Leaf
o
o

Trophophyll: does
not produce spores
(non-fertile frond)
Sporophyll:
produces spores
(fertile frond)
o Sorus/sori: cluster of
sporangia
o Indusium: film of tissue
that partly covers the
sorus (indusiate)
o Exindusiate : no indusium
Roots:
o Underground nonphotosynthetic structures
that take up water and
nutrients from soil
o Are always fibrous and
are structurally very
similar to the roots of
seed plants

Fern Anatomy

Protostele or siphonostele type

of vascular arrangements

Diversity of Ferns

A classification of extant ferns

by Smith et al. (2006)

Edible Ferns
Athyrium esculentum syn. Diplazium
esculentum (Pako)
Stenochlaena palustris (high climbing
fern)
Ceratopteris thalictroides (swamp
fern/ water sprite/ water lettuce)
Cyathea
Medicinal ferns
Nephroplepis biserrata (Aspidium
Uses

Nutrition
o Edible: leaves are boiled
and eaten as vegetable

Folkloric: no record used in phil

anti-inflammatory

Aspenium nidus