Most people wander through life so fast, they miss many of the small joys, like appreciating the diversity of fern spore patterns. As you can see in the photos below, each genus of fern has its own unique spore arrangement, which are used by taxonomists to determine who is related to who. Some spores form in the middle of the leaf, some cover the leaf, others line the leaf edge only, and a few are on entirely separate stalks. All which are borne on the actual leaves are located on the dorsal/abaxial (back) side of the frond (fern leaf). I still get a chuckle remembering a 1980s phone call from my Master Gardener days, when a distressed homeowner was explaining that she had sprayed everything she knew to use on her ferns, but still couldn’t control the dark disease-like lumps on the back of her favorite fern.
Below are: Cyrtomium (l), Diplazium (top), Pyrrosia (just below top), Dryopteris (right), Lepisorus (2nd from right), Thelypteris (3rd from right), Coniogramme (bottom), Onychium (bottom right), Pteris (2nd from bottom with very narrow fronds), and Pellaea (2nd from bottom with zig-zag stems.
Faced with the dilemma of needing to reproduce long before flowers and seed were invented, ferns figured out a truly unique system. In the case of flowering plants, which evolved much later (130 MYA), sex takes place during flowering, seed are formed after successful impregnation, seed are planted and subsequently sprout, resulting in new plants. In the case of ferns, however, the fronds produce spores (their equivalent of seed), before any sexual relations take place. The spore are then sown and germinate, also before any sex has occurred. These tiny newly germinated ferns, which resemble liverworts, are known as known as gametophytes. Unlike humans, there is no underage limit on sex in the fern world. If there was, there would be no more ferns. Youth is the only time that ferns can have meaningful sex, which usually occurs while they are surrounded by or inundated by water. Once the sperm and the eggs from the gametophytes hookup while they’re skinny dippin’, it doesn’t take long for tiny leaves, known as sporophytes, to emerge. These are what grows into an adult fern. To quote the great Dave Barry, “I’m not making this up.”
You’re probably thinking, why should I grow ferns, since they have no value to pollinators? While plants for pollinators are the current flavor of the month, did you know that 24% of the worlds flora (*USDA/Kew) have no value to insect or animal pollinators? We love pollinators because they attract us visually, but if we forget the rest of the worlds amazing non-pollinator flora like ferns, conifers and ornamental grasses, we may cause ourselves a much bigger problem.
Most informative and entertaining !!
Thank you!
Lots of information here -conveyed in Tony speak for easy understanding.
I love ferns and now know some more about them. Thanks, Tony
Growing ferns from spores is a fun winter time in the basement with grow lights activity. I just need to know WHEN spores arr ready, especially the native climbing fern. Hard to find in the trade so would like to collect spores and start some.
It’s hard to explain remotely how to tell when spores are ripe, but try placing the frond on a piece of white paper with the spores facing the paper. After 1-2 days, lift the frond, and if they is tiny brown dust remaining, the spores are ripe.
Tony,
Thanks for enriching both our knowledge of & appreciation for plants; AND thanks for making such incredible plant diversity accessible to the average gardener. Your passion and hard work really motivate me to learn more about the natural world.
Meadows are also de jour. I am trying to have shady meadows, and Deparia lobato-crenata ferns (ex PDN) work very well by weaving in with my other plants to form a green shady tapestry. They are a really good addition to the landscape, and VERY deer resistant.
These past couple of years, perhaps due to uncertain, and even scary times, I have been focusing on creating a food forest, for both me and wildlife. I have added fancy pawpaws, hazelnuts, raspberries, violets, C. kousa, shorter grasses, and many weird beautiful veggies, to work into my garden beds. I would adore it if PDN would have more offerings focused on edible and beneficial plants. Hint: I greatly desire Dwarf Mulberry ‘Mojo Berry’ (Morus rotundiloba ‘Waisei-kirishima-shikinari’) and Liriodendron tulipifera ‘Aureomarginatum’ for beauty, and to host moths and butterflies. I already have Ficus ‘Jolly Tiger’ ex Asiatica, which produces big delicious fruit (that nearly always freezes off before ripening).
Here are a couple of links that you may find helpful…one for edimentals and one for medicinal plants that Plant Delights offers. We love to grow and offer everything, but our businesses model is already much too complex to add more diversity like woody fruit trees.
Edimentals
Medicinal Plants