Also, the smaller gametophyte can live in places where the bigger fern, or sporophyte, cannot, which means it can be a way for the fern to expand its range. Where does it grow? Tree ferns live in ...

The gametophyte has both male and female sex organs that can fertilize the egg to produce an embryo, which grows into a new ...

The unsuspecting plants inside include angiosperms, gymnosperms, and ferns in both of the plants’ life stages: the large, recognizable sporophyte and the much smaller, mosslike gametophyte. In tandem, ...

The spores released by the sporophyte – the asexually reproducing form that we commonly recognize as a fern – germinate into either a tiny, heart-shaped, hermaphroditic gametophyte (“hermaphroditic” ...