List Of Spore Bearing Plants

Spore bearing plants differ from seed bearing plants because they reproduce asexually, that is without flowers and fertilization processes that combine the genetics of two different plants of the same species. Instead, spore-bearing plants produce an embryo free of a food source or endosperm-the stuff that makes seeds like corn and rice edible-also feed the embryo of that respective seedling-by cell division.

Spores do not have an endosperm or food source and must chance on landing on a favorable food source before germinating. These spores are released in mass quantities to ensure their survival. Common spore bearing plants include algae’s, mosses, and ferns.

Spore Bearing Algae

The simplest spore bearing plants are algae’s which take advantage of living in water fully. Algae’s are usually single celled organisms that make use of sunlight and nutrients floating in the water they inhabit to live. However, a few algae’s grow into larger multi-celled plants with root-like holdfasts that bind them to soil or rock. Examples of these include sea kelp and other large water thriving species that resemble terrestrial plants but lack true roots.

Mosses Bear Spores

Mosses are generally minute plants-though some grow a bit larger-which often grow in cool, moist environments. We often think of them as growing on the northern sides of trees along with lichens. Their wax coated leaves appear as fine netting between minute and wiry stems. They can survive in harshest conditions because the “parent” moss is a rich and fertile habitat for its own spores when conditions return in their favor.

Ferns are Spore Bearing

Ferns are the most popular of spore bearing plants and people often use them to adorn their gardens and homes. Unlike the algae’s and mosses, which disperse spores via spore bearing stalks, most ferns simply have a spore bearing capsule included on certain or even every leaf. Common ferns include cinnamon stick, staghorn, horsetails, wisk ferns, maiden’s hair, birds nest, and club mosses. Just to name a minute few in this 15,000 species strong family.

Orchids and a few other plants are often though of as having spores and although their spore like seeds are microscopic in many species, they do reproduce via sexual reproduction. Fungi, on the other hand, do bear a spore-like seed, however, they are more closely related to the animal kingdom than the plant kingdom and have recently been given their own classification apart from either.