How it works
The top drawing is a whole fern growing from its rhizome. The bottom one goes up close: a leaflet turned over to show its brown dots, one dot cut open, and the tiny heart-shaped plant a spore grows into.
Read the full guide
From the frond down, then up close
Numbers 1 to 7 are the parts every class learns: the frond, its stalk and leaflets, the curled fiddlehead, the rhizome, the roots and the brown dots under a leaflet. Numbers 8 and 9 name the frond more exactly: the blade and the rachis. Numbers 10 to 13 are up close: the cover over a dot, the spore cases inside it, and the prothallus with its rhizoids.
- Ferns have no flowers or seeds. The brown dots under the leaflets hold spores, and a spore grows into the small heart shape first.
Questions and answers
What are the parts of a fern called?
A fern leaf is a frond: a stalk called the stipe and a leafy blade of leaflets called pinnae on a central rachis. Fronds grow from a stem called the rhizome, with roots below. New fronds start as fiddleheads.
What are the brown dots under fern leaves?
They are sori, clusters of spore cases called sporangia. In many ferns each sorus has a thin cover, the indusium. The dots are how a fern makes spores, not a disease.
What is a fiddlehead?
A young fern frond, still tightly rolled up. It unrolls from the bottom up as it grows. It is also called a crozier.