This conglomeration of shapes and colors is a cluster of sporangia – known as a sorus – of a fern. A sporangium is where a fern produces the spores that allow it to reproduce. Get a closer view of the ...

But since the 1970s, geologists have also noted the existence of another layer, just above the iridium-rich one, that contains “lots and lots and lots of fossil fern spores” and not much else, says ...

Moving through plant lineages, from spore-bearing lycophytes to ferns to flowering plants, reproduction becomes more and more specialized. Indeed, the flower is often diagrammed as the end goal of ...

If you're up to a challenge, you can also try growing ferns from spores, which takes patience—but after, you'll have all the fronds you could ever want. Here, we spoke to experts about all ...

Middle: examples of normal and malformed spores. Picture on the right: Phlebopteris. The fern fossil is from a quarry in Southern Germany (Pechgraben) from the earliest Jurassic. This location and ...

A fern's "gametophyte" stage produces the gametes, eggs and sperm. Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing ...

Though it may seem surprising since ferns don't flower and get pollinated, they actually reproduce through their spores.