ferns.

 

ferns are my favorite & I am so excited to bring mine out for spring this week.

all about ferns:

• Ferns belong to a group of plants called featherplants or pteridophytes, along with club mosses and horsetails.
• Coal is made largely of fossilized featherplants of the Carboniferous Period.
• There are now 10,000 species of fern living in damp, shady places around the world.
• Fern leaves are called fronds. When new they are curled up like a shepherd’s crook, but they gradually uncurl over time.
• Ferns grow into new plants not from seeds but from spores in two stages.
• First spores are made in sacs called sporangia. These are the brown spots on the underside of the fronds. From these spores spread out. Some settle in suitable places.
• Second spores develop into a tiny heart-shaped plant called a prothallus that makes male and female cells. When bathed in rain, the male cells swim to the female cells, fertilizing them. A new root and stem then grow into a proper fern frond and the tiny prothallus dies.
• more fern facts
• i love ferns. 
• there's a funny show with Zach Galifianakis: between two ferns

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