In the genus Lycopodium, the club mosses, the sporangia are closely associated with the leaves. In some species (L. lucidulum), the sporangium-bearing leaves (sporophylls) occur in zones among the vegetative portions of the stems. In most, however, the sporophylls occur in specialized compressed stems called cones or strobili. Each sporophyll is associated with one yellow to orange kidney-shaped sporangium.

In several species the spores develop rapidly on the soil surface into ovoid-cylindrical gametophytes about 2–3 mm (0.08–0.12 inch) long, with green lobes and colourless bases; they usually contain a fungus. In other species, development of a colourless gametophyte is slow, so at maturation, which may require up to eight years, the fleshy gametophyte will have become buried in successive layers of humus. These subterranean gametophytes, which contain fungi, are long-lived and are larger (up to 2 cm [0.8 inch]) than the surface types.

The gametophytes of Lycopodium are bisexual, although the antheridia and archegonia may develop into separate groups. The sperms are biflagellate and apparently more than one egg of the same gametophyte may be fertilized.

The zygote divides at a right angle to the long axis of the archegonium. The inner cell gives rise to the embryo, which thus is oriented as if it will develop within the gametophyte; it turns 180° during later development, however, and the axis grows vertically outward from the gametophyte.

In contrast to Lycopodium, the sporophytes of all spike mosses (Selaginella) have sporophylls localized in strobili, and all species of Selaginella are heterosporous; that is, they produce spores of two sizes, the larger designated as megaspores and the smaller as microspores. The megaspores develop into female gametophytes and the microspores into male gametophytes. Accordingly, strobili bear megasporophylls that contain megasporangia, which will produce megaspores, and microsporophylls that contain microsporangia, which will yield microspores. Although the evolutionary origin of two kinds of spores (dimorphism) is unknown, the development of megaspores in living plants suggests that differences in nutrition in the two kinds of sporangia are significant. In a microsporangium, most of the microsporocytes undergo meiosis, forming four spores each; by contrast, all but one or, occasionally, several of the sporocytes in the megasporangium do not complete development. As a result, only four megaspores usually mature in such a sporangium, enlarging as they become gorged with the nutrients made available by disintegration of the other cells. The megaspores, accordingly, are much larger than microspores, although both contain stored food. Both types of spores are thick-walled, and both have prominent three-part (triradiate) ridges.

Unlike the homosporous spores of most liverworts, hornworts, mosses, ferns, and Lycopodium—which are characterized by morphologically identical spores that germinate to produce bisexual (both male and female) or unisexual (either male or female) gametophytes—the spores of Selaginella begin to develop into gametophytes before they have been shed from their sporangia and attain maturity on a suitable moist substrate.

The microscopic male gametophyte is composed essentially of a single antheridium, which produces biflagellate sperm. The female gametophyte, which protrudes after the megaspore wall cracks open in the region of the triradiate ridge, consists of vegetative cells, has several archegonia at maturity, and usually has three groups of rhizoids. Both male and female gametophytes lack chlorophyll (green pigment), which is necessary for photosynthesis; they utilize nutrients stored in the spores.

After fertilization, one zygote of each female gametophyte develops into an embryonic sporophyte. There is considerable variation in details of development among the species of Selaginella. In some, the spores may develop mature gametophytes before they are shed from their sporangia, and fertilization may occur, so female gametophytes with embryos may be found in the strobili (compressed stems, or cones). The megaspores of Selaginella, containing female gametophytes with still-attached juvenile sporophytes, have the superficial appearance of germinating seeds, from which, however, they differ in many significant respects.

The genus Isoetes, known as quillwort, is monoecious (or hermaphroditic) and heterosporous, like Selaginella. Most of the leaves are fertile; some bear one large megasporangium each, and others support a single microsporangium on the inner surface of a spoonlike leaf base. The microsporangia can produce enormous numbers of microspores—as many as 1,000,000—and the megasporangia give rise to 50 to 300 megaspores. The spores are liberated as the older sporophylls decay. Unlike those of Selaginella, the spores of Isoetes do not germinate until they have been shed from their sporangia. The unisexual gametophytes are much like those of Selaginella, but the sperm are multiflagellate. The embryonic sporophyte is nourished by food stored in the megaspore and transported through a massive foot.

Ferns

As they mature, many fern sporophytes begin to produce spores in clusters of sporangia on the undersurfaces of their fronds (or vegetative “leaves”). Others produce their sporangia on highly modified leaves or portions thereof.

The site of origin of the sporangia is the receptacle; the latter, with its groups of sporangia, is called a sorus. In many ferns, each sorus is covered with a special outgrowth, the indusium; in others the sporangia are covered during development by the margin of the leaf. In a few ferns (e.g., Polypodium), the sori remain uncovered.

In primitive ferns, such as Ophioglossum and Botrychium, the spores are borne upon a specialized axis, the fertile spike. The sporangia of such primitive ferns are massive, with several layers of cellular walls, and produce an indefinite but large number of spores. In most other ferns, the sporangia are smaller and long-stalked, with single-layered walls and a definite number of spores. The spores of the latter are shed explosively by breakage and shrinking as the sporangia open and then slam shut.

Most ferns produce one kind of spore (homospory), but a few genera of aquatic and amphibious ferns (Marsilea, Salvinia, and Azolla) produce two kinds (heterospory), small microspores and much larger megaspores. In either case, after being shed from the parent sporophyte, the spores that have suitable environmental conditions germinate and develop into the gametophytic phase. The ribbonlike, filamentous or heart-shaped gametophytes of most ferns contain chlorophyll, are anchored to some surface—moist soil, moist rocks, or tree bark—by unicellular rootlike rhizoids, and rarely exceed 13 mm (0.5 inch) in diameter. In a few ferns (Ophioglossum, Botrychium, and certain species of Schizaea), the gametophytes are subterranean, lack chlorophyll, are cylindrical or tuberous, and contain the filamentous structures (hyphae) of an associated fungus.

Fern gametophytes, often called prothalli (singular, prothallus or prothallium), are one cell layer thick except in the centre. Most fern prothalli are bisexual; i.e., they have both male (antheridia) and female (archegonia) sex organs, which develop usually on the undersurface of the prothallus.

Although the eggs of several archegonia may be fertilized, only one zygote usually develops into a juvenile sporophyte. The latter consists of an absorbing foot; a primary root, or radicle, which promptly penetrates the surface; a prominent first leaf; and a rudimentary, slow-growing stem. As the juvenile sporophyte becomes established, the parental gametophyte dies. The series of leaves formed from the stem of the juvenile sporophyte gradually attain the form and vein pattern that characterize the mature sporophyte.

In most ferns, the antheridia appear before the archegonia and continue to develop as the latter mature; furthermore, the archegonial necks curve toward the mature antheridia so that fertilization can readily occur. Both gametes may be derived from one individual or from different individuals. In the bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum), although the gametophytes are bisexual, self-incompatibility factors reduce self-fertilization. In Onoclea sensiblis, the gametophytes are unisexual in early development, thus favouring cross-fertilization, but later the gametophytes become bisexual so that, if cross-fertilization fails, the species can still be maintained.

Psilopsids

The trilobed sporangia of the whisk ferns (Psilotum) are borne terminally on short lateral branches. During development, some of the potentially spore-bearing tissue is used as nutrient by the sporocytes as they complete the meiotic divisions that result in colourless kidney-shaped spores. The latter, which are shed as the sporangia open along three lines, germinate and slowly develop into cylindrical, sparingly branched gametophytes about 0.5–2 mm (0.02–0.08 inch) in diameter and several millimetres long. They presumably derive nourishment from decaying matter and occur in humus-rich soil, in rock fissures, or among roots on the trunks of tree ferns. The cells of the gametophyte contain fungal structures (hyphae) that probably are involved in some type of nutritional relation with the gametophyte.

The gametophytes are bisexual, and the sperm cells are multiflagellate. The embryonic sporophyte is not easily distinguished from the gametophyte that bears it. At first anchored to the gametophyte by an absorptive foot, the sporophyte ultimately becomes separated from both the foot and the gametophyte.

Sphenopsids

The perennial sporophytes of horsetails (Equisetum species) produce strobili once during every growing season. They may be borne at the tips of green shoots (E. hyemale, E. kansanum), at the tips of nongreen shoots that become green after the spores have been shed (E. fluviatile, E. sylvaticum), or on special nongreen branches that wither and die after the spores have been shed (E. arvense, E. talmateia). The appendages of the strobilus are often called sporangiophores and have been considered to be both stem branches and of leafy origin; in the latter case they are called sporophylls. Each sporangiophore bears a number of fingerlike sporangia, which produce large numbers of thin-walled green spores. The outermost wall layer of the spore breaks down into four appendages, which, by their sensitivity to moisture, coil and uncoil, thereby disseminating the spores.

The spores of Equisetum germinate rapidly and grow into green pincushion-like gametophytes anchored to the surface by rhizoids. Apparently, two types of gametophytes are produced from the homosporous spores. Some mature slowly, are smaller than others, and always produce antheridia, never archegonia; others are larger and hermaphroditic, producing archegonia at first and antheridia later. The ratios of male to hermaphroditic gametophytes vary among species but are relatively uniform within a species. The ratios are altered by changes in environmental conditions; for example, at certain temperatures (e.g., 32 °C [about 90 °F]), only male gametophytes develop from the spores of five species, whereas at 15 °C (59 °F) approximately 50 percent are male and 50 percent are hermaphroditic gametophytes.

Self-fertilization of hermaphroditic gametophytes can occur, and several sporophytes may be produced on one gametophyte. The embryo consists of an absorptive foot, a primary root (radicle), and a shoot with whorled appendages.