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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE LADY-FERN FAMILY | |||||||||
| The lady-fern family is well represented
in forested regions in Saskatchewan. These plants are different than the
angiosperms, or flowering plants, because they do not produce flowers. Instead,
the reproductive structures are called sporangia, or spore sacs. Each spore
sac contains many spores. The spores will germinate to produce what is called
the gametophyte. The gametophyte will produce an archegonium and an antheridium
which will produce the egg and sperm respectively. The egg and sperm fuse
to form a zygote, which grows into the sporophyte. The sporophyte is the
stage of the life cycle that is referred to below. In the lady-fern family, the leaves are called fronds. The leaf stalk is known as the stipe. The leaves in this family are often divided. The segments created by the first division are called pinnae (pinna sing.); the segments created by the second division are called pinnules (pinnule sing.). The spore sacs are in clusters called sori (sorus sing.). The indusium is the covering on the sorus and may be absent in some species. |
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| MALE FERN | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Dryopteris filix-mas | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Male fern grows from a stout rhizome covered in old stipe bases. The fertile and sterile fronds appear similar. The stipes are about 1/4 of the length of the blade. The stipes are straw-coloured towards the blade and dark brown or reddish near the base. There are two kinds of scales, broad and hair-like, scattered along the stipes. The blades are up to 1.5 m long and are pinnate-lobed to bipinnate at the base. The fronds are firm but not leathery. There are typically 20 to 30 pairs of pinnae, each of which is lobed or divided into pinnules. The pinnule margins may be saw-toothed. The sori are midway between the midvein and the margin and are often confined to the lower 1/2 or 2/3 of the pinnule. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Male fern grows in dense woods and on slopes on limestone. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This species is found in northwestern Saskatchewan in the Tazin Lake Upland ecoregion. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Male fern is endangered in Saskatchewan because it is extremely rare. It is only known from one location in northern Saskatchewan and the population is locally sparse. No immediate threats are known for this species but are possible in the future. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY MALE FERN | |||||||||
| * Are the fronds up to 2 m long? * Are the fronds with sori similar to the ones without sori? * Are there two kinds of scales on the stipes? * Did you find it in northwestern Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found male fern! | |||||||||
