The Way Our Famillies Have Changed Our Lives

Brett Mitchell

Professor Pagan

Botany 215 Lab

12 March 2013

C-Fern Project Part 1

Purpose

The purpose of the C-Fern Project is to correctly explain and depict the characteristics, structure, and attributes of the C-fern (Ceratopteris richardii).

Materials and Methods

Provide a concise but exact description of the procedures that you followed to culture and germinate your ferns and to make observations regarding your ungerminated fern spores. Summarize the procedures (but still be exact and inclusive) and include the materials you used to complete the procedures. (Do not simply list the materials used. Instead, include the materials as part of your procedure descriptions. Remember to include the exact types and makes / models of microscope that you used for each observational technique. Remember to provide a description of the environment in which your spores/gametophytes will be grown. Also, remember to tell your audience the specific name of the organism from which the spores were obtained.

Results and Discussion: The Spore

1) Distal Side:

Proximal Side:

a) The spore wall is an important factor to "spore's resistance to environmental stress". Its main components are "layers of sugar polymers". The ornamentation pattern on the proximal side would closer and magnified more with increasing detail of the "Trilete". The distal side would be less descriptive, but would still have detail of the marks. Sporopollenin is a major component of the spore wall and is very stable.

b) The "y"-shaped mark on the spore is called the "Trilete". This mark is the point of attachment between the 4 spores as a result of meiosis. The "Trilete" is used as the weakest part so the spore can break out of it.

2) Describe the anatomy of the spore of a C-fern, i.e., what are the component parts of a C-fern spore?

3) Sporopollenin is the outer, exine layer of the spore. What roles does sporopollenin play in the life of C-fern?

4) Is C-fern homosporous or heterosporous? What is the difference between homospory and heterospory?

4) How do C-fern sporophytes produce spores? From what type of cell do spores arise,by what process, and in what specific plant structure does the process take place?