Five Fun Fern Facts

Close your eyes and picture dinosaurs roaming ancient Earth. What plants do you see growing beneath their feet? Chances are good ferns are one of the first plants that come to mind when you picture "the forest primeval," and you'd be right. Ferns covered many parts of the Earth during the times of the dinosaurs, and continue to thrive today. Here are some of our favorite facts about ferns.

Fiddle me this. Ferns are vascular plants, meaning they have water conducting vessels throughout the plant structure (unlike mosses). They have large divided leaves called fronds which arise from the stem, starting as tightly curled "fiddleheads," so named due to their resemblance to the handle of a violin.

No flowers, no seeds, no problem.  One of the things that sets ferns apart from many other plants is the fact that they don't flower, and they don't produce seeds. Instead, ferns reproduce using spores produced from sporangia on the undersides of the fronds. Some species produce two visibly distinct types of fronds, with the spore-producing fronds having a very different appearance and often growing much taller. In either case, the spores are transported by wind or sometimes by sticking to the coats of animals moving by. The spores have very little nutritive value for predators, and don't take much energy for the plant to produce, giving these plants an adaptive edge in difficult growing environments.

Florida native Cinnamon Fern has distinctly different spore-producing fronds. 

Ferns are everywhere. The fern family is very large, with more than 12,000 extant species. Ferns can be found on all continents except Antarctica, in a wide variety of habitats from sea level to mountain slopes. Many ferns grow in moist shady places, and a large number are epiphytic (air plants) that don't require soil and grow in trees or rock faces. Some ferns have become trees themselves, reaching up to 60 feet in height or more.

Dinosaur dinner.  Ferns have been on Earth for at least 360 million years, according to fossil records. Dinosaurs dominated the planet between 230 and 65 million years ago, and for much of that time, flowering plants (angiosperms) didn't yet exist. Herbivore dinosaurs, like stegosaurus and triceratops, dined on ferns, along with conifers, cycads, and mosses. 

Fossilized fern (source)

Food no more. Today, ferns are generally no longer used for food by vertebrates due to their toxicity level. (A notable exception is the adorable European Woodmouse.) They still play an important role in the ecosystem, however, as they serve as habitat for many invertebrates and small animals. With no predators to keep them under control, some fern species can become aggressive and even invasive, so take care when adding non-natives to the home landscape.