Fern , Its Uniqueness and Specialty

None of us could have missed the lush green, tiny but leafy Fern that find a place in all the nurseries, homes, part of indoor & outdoor decorations and landscaping. We give little thought to this amazing little member of plant kingdom that has been in place since time immemorial. Fern is one of the oldest to flourish on earth, millions of years before Dinosaur started roaming. This post brings you the various interesting features of this non flowering , but interesting plant as far its life cycle is concerned.

Table of Contents

Fern – Anatomy :

Rhizome: Rhizome are responsible for the production of roots. They replenish the plant with nutrients and water taken from the soil. The Rhizomes are very slender and at times thick too.. The rhizome partly indicates the growth of the fern.

Frond/ Leaf: This part of the Plant bears the leaf which is also called as the pinnae. As in conventional plants , the pinnae is responsible for executing Photosynthesis.

Stipe,: This is nothing but Stem . The stem also does a bit in photosynthesis

Rachis: This is the part of the fern stem that is touching the fern’s leaflets. Essentially, it’s the part of the stem that touches the leafy portion of the frond.

As mentioned above , ferns produce through spores which get generated in their sporangia. which is the storage area for spores. They resemble minute granules at the bottom of the fronds. Like any other plant that reproduce through spores ,Ferns drop millions of spores to the ground. Out of these , only few which fall on ideal growing conditions make their way out successfully.

Uniqueness of Fern’s Life cycle :

Fern are non-flowering vascular plants . They do not that have seeds . Ferns belong to the Pteridophyta family..
Fern has a unique life cycle. They are very different from most of the other plants. Ferns don’t have any flower and seeds .That makes it different from the conventional reproduction process.
It starts with a haploid spore that are stored in sporangia, which when released to the ground germinate into a tiny heart shaped Gametophyte .
The Gametophyte get anchored to the ground with the help of Rhizoids which serve as roots
Under favorable damp conditions, antheridia releases mature sperm and fertilize with the archegonia that produces eggs . The archegonia are available on the lower surface of gametophyte.
As a result of fertilization, a zygote forms and develops into an embryo .
The embryo eventually grows larger than the gametophyte and becomes a sporophyte.
That gametophyte and the sporophyte plant, are two independent parts of the life cycle of the fern. It is pertinent to note here that no other plant has this uniqueness.

Ferns – Origin :

Ferns make one of the oldest and ancient plant that thrived on this planet when only few invertebrates were available on land..In fact, ferns are much older than the Dinosaurs ! as seen below..

First Land Plant – 475 Million years
Formation of Vascular & Non Vascular – 400 Million years
Birth of Fern – 350 Million years
Dinosaurs – 230 Million. Years
Flowering Plants – 145 Million years

The size of Ferns vary hugely unlike regular plants . They are as small as the tiny Kidney Fern and as huge as Tree fern which grow up to 20 meters !

Habitats & Life span :

Ferns are distributed throughout the world. However they are abundant in vegetation in tropical regions.
Ferns are found in four major habitats , namely moist, shady forests, sun shadow regions , crevices of hillocks and rocks, swamps and Marshy areas .
The lifespan of fern depends predominantly on its species though partly on the favorable environment. Some types of ferns can live up to 100 years.

Economic Importance :

Ferns are economically not so important unlike flowering seed plants. But still they have considerable importance in some context.

Ferns like fiddleheads of Pteridium aquilinum (bracken), Matteuccia struthiopteris (ostrich fern) are edible and used for food.
They make adorable and lovely indoor/ house plants.
Ferns are used in outdoor decorations and landscaping

Symbolism of Fern and its presence in Folklore:

The fern has a long history with lot of significance attached to it in various cultures across the globe through the centuries.

Ferns symbolizes eternal youth in many mythologies .
It represented new life and new beginnings for the Maoris of New Zealand.
Abundant hope for future generations in case of Japanese
For the Victorians, the fern has been a symbol of humility and sincerity. They presented the fern motif in all cookware including ceramics , , metal, wood, and paper.
In fact ferns have been omnipresent , from gifts made for baptism to tombstones and part of epitah.
In Slavik folkfore , ferns are believed to blossom once a year . It was believed that flowering was happening during the Ivan– Kupala night ( shortest night in northern hemisphere) . Anyone who sees a “fern flower” was supposed to be blessed with prosperity, luck and blessings

In Finland , it is believed that one who finds the “seed” of a fern in bloom on Midsummer night will be able to travel invisibly to the locations.

Benefits to Mankind :

Few species are used as a minor food source like crosiers & Ostrich fern
Some are used for medicine in various parts of the world.
A blue green algae found on the leaves of Mosquito fern helps convert nitrogen into usable form through Nitrogen fixation. This helps to increase the productivity of paddy.
In horticulture , millions of fern plants of various species are sold every year for indoor , outdoor decorations and landscaping.
Because of their uniqueness in retaining two separate life cycles , ferns find a major place in the biological research.
Water Ferns are used in genetic teaching and Research.

Ferns are anywhere and everywhere ,but our cognizance about them is too little… Kindly post your comments