Ferns & Spores
Name:

Plants such as the fern look like the flowering plants but do not have seeds. Ferns have roots, leaves, stems with tubes that carry water, minerals and food. Ferns reproduce by means of tiny dots that form on the underside of the ferns leaf. A fern's reproduction is very complicated. It starts out by making sori. Inside the sori there are spores. The spores make gametophytes. The gametophytes look like tiny, tiny, little cornflakes. Gametophytes are the parent of the baby fern. The habitat around ferns needs to be marshy or wet so that the gametophyte can travel. The ferns' leaf is called a "frond".

They have been on the earth for a long time, even before the dinosaurs. They are still all over the world today.

A year in the life of a fern:
SPRING: A fern starts its maturing life by having all of its leaves curled up like a fiddle head. Then it uncurls them. After it uncurls its leaves, it grows.

SUMMER: In the summer, the rhizome grows and spreads like a family tree. At the end of the rhizome, a cell grows and branches out. Then the fronds grow out of the tip of the rhizome brances. Because they grow in the soil, it is not as chancy that they are going to dry out or be eaten by an animal.

FALL: In the fall, ferns do different things. Some are evergreens, others are dormant. The evergreen fronds stay green all winter, so they can keep doing photosynthesis. The fronds on the ferns that are dormant die but the rhizomes stay alive.

WINTER: In the winter ferns are dormant. Dormant means to sleep. When ferns are dormant it is as if they are hibernating.

Vocabulary - Type your answer in the box.
(Correct Spelling Counts)

  • dots
  • plant
  • fern
  • take
  • spore
  • one-celled
  • roots
  • fronds
  • seeds
  • moisture

1. Some plants do not reproduce with ____ .


2. A fern is a ____ .


3. A fern uses ____ to carry water and nutrients.


4. A ferns leaves are called ____ .


5. A ____ is able to grow into a new organism.


6. A spore is a ____ organism.


7. Spores are found on ____ leaves.


8. Spores look like tiny ____ .


9. Spores ____ the place of seeds in ferns.


10. All plants need ____ .


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