Ferns

The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (land plants with vascular tissues such as xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from non-vascular plants (mosses, hornworts and liverworts) by having specialized transport bundles that conduct water and nutrients from and to the roots, as well as life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase.

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thumb|The underside of a fertile frond of Dicksonia antarctica. Each circular brown structure is an individual sorus.

thumb|upright=1.2|Fiddlehead ferns thumb|A chicken dish including fiddleheads thumb|Fiddleheads growing thumb thumb|Fiddlehead sculpture at the Saint John Arts Centre by sculptor Jim Boyd in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

thumb|300px|The names of fern frond parts (Davallia tyermanii) thumb|right|300px|A fern (Dryopteris decipiens) with simple (lobed or pinnatifid) blades, the dissection of each blade not quite reaching to the rachis. thumb|right|300px|A growing fern frond unfurling. thumb|right|300px|Unfurling fiddlehead fern frond

thumb|right|Prothallus (prothallium) of the fern Polypodium vulgare seen under a light microscope.

hypothetical geoclimactic event

ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level

REDIRECT Fern

REDIRECT Fern

thumb|Fernery at Rippon Lea, Australia thumb|A fernery at the Geelong Botanic Gardens (1892–1902) A fernery is a specialized garden for the cultivation and display of ferns.