Well, I intended to do a post on fern spores later, but the spores had other ideas.
I picked a frond off my Autumn ferns to bring in to my work space yesterday evening.
I took photos of the lovely sori lined up two-by-two down the leaflets.
I meant to take the frond back outside to the compost pile when I finished.
Over night, the frond dried up and shot spores all over the table.
I was amazed at the range the tiny sporangia catapults had.
While we are on the subject of spores, may I remind you that they are NOT seeds.

Each spore germinates into a tiny gametophyte that allows an egg and sperm join
then germination takes place and a new sporophyte/fern plant grows.
The tiny green structures (pin-head sized) in this jar are gametophytes grown from Dragon’s Tail fern spores.
If my snacked on baby fern (‘Disappearing Fern’ post) doesn’t survive, maybe its progeny will. Sniff, sniff.
Ferns come, ferns go, ferns come again.
FERN MAMA/FLOWER
Ferns are very interesting. It amazes me how they can get from one part of the yard to another.
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I agree with Automatic, I find ferns I never bought or even thought of in my garden. Of course, I keep all of them.
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J’aime beaucoup les fougères, je trouve que c’est élégant et aérien mais malheureusement on ne peut rien faire lorsque la nature prend ses droits. Merci pour toutes vos explications très intéressantes.
Belle journée à vous Floweralley et mes amitiés.
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Always glad to hear from you, Denise. Stay tuned for more spores and seeds.
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Well, I’ve just learned a lot! And what marvellous shots! I have many self-seeded ferns in our garden. I’ve always loved ferns but I’ll be watching them with greater respect from now on 🙂
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Thank you so much.
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Very informative post. I didn’t know spores were not seeds. Great photos too.
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