Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: underside

This fern plant isn't large, with each frond being only a few inches long, so I thought it would be fun to try getting some close-ups of the undersides, which are so fascinating to me. What you are looking at are spores, which is how ferns reproduce. Ferns are one of the world's oldest plants, and they do not reproduce by flower pollination like most other plants. The next time you are admiring a fern, take a look at the underside, and you'll be surprised how interesting the spores look! In fact, the spore vary drastically from one species to another, and I find them quite beautiful! :) If you would like to know more about spore reproduction in plants, Wiki has a very nice page here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporogenesis