Why do ferns prefer the shade?
Why do ferns prefer the shade?
Ferns, like all tracheophytes, have vascular systems to bring water up to their leaves.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Transcript
NARRATOR: The ferns, or pteridophytes, belong to a large group of plants called the tracheophytes. Tracheophytes are plants that have evolved a plumbing network called the vascular system.
This transport system allows the plant to circulate water and nutrients from roots to leaves and vice versa. It also allows the fern to grow much larger than the Bryophyta, because the conducting tissues have strengthened, allowing the fern to hold itself upright.
The fronds usually grow up from an underground stem called a rhizome.
If we look at the rhizome, we can see that it is surrounded by a mass of roots, which enable the fern to take up water and minerals.
The fern has a protective cuticle to prevent water loss into the air, as well as stomata to allow gaseous exchange with minimum water loss.
The fern appears to have adapted very well to life on land. But why does it still prefer damp and shady habitats?
The fern everyone knows and recognizes is the sturdy sporophyte generation. The reason why the fern can't make it out of the shade is that its gametophyte generation, called the prothallus, is a very delicate free-living plant with no protective apparatus. Its motile male gametes require a free-water film to swim to the female gametes so that fertilization can take place.
After fertilization the sporophyte relies on the delicate gametophyte for its nutrient supply until it has developed roots and shoots. Then the gametophyte withers and dies. In evolutionary terms, ferns and their relatives are considered to be some of the more primitive vascular plants.
This transport system allows the plant to circulate water and nutrients from roots to leaves and vice versa. It also allows the fern to grow much larger than the Bryophyta, because the conducting tissues have strengthened, allowing the fern to hold itself upright.
The fronds usually grow up from an underground stem called a rhizome.
If we look at the rhizome, we can see that it is surrounded by a mass of roots, which enable the fern to take up water and minerals.
The fern has a protective cuticle to prevent water loss into the air, as well as stomata to allow gaseous exchange with minimum water loss.
The fern appears to have adapted very well to life on land. But why does it still prefer damp and shady habitats?
The fern everyone knows and recognizes is the sturdy sporophyte generation. The reason why the fern can't make it out of the shade is that its gametophyte generation, called the prothallus, is a very delicate free-living plant with no protective apparatus. Its motile male gametes require a free-water film to swim to the female gametes so that fertilization can take place.
After fertilization the sporophyte relies on the delicate gametophyte for its nutrient supply until it has developed roots and shoots. Then the gametophyte withers and dies. In evolutionary terms, ferns and their relatives are considered to be some of the more primitive vascular plants.