Whisk Fern Spores

Whisk Fern Spores

Whisk Ferns produce spores which grow into small underground masses of tissue that develop sex organs. The picture shows a section through the spore sacs of a present-day whisk fern. The main plant can be compared to the sporophyte stage of a moss. True ferns which show a similar alternation of sexual and spore-forming generations almost certainly evolved from primitive Whisk Ferns. [CH] {TP}