Seedless (Ferns) Sexual Reproduction
Seedless tracheophytes are vascular plants that reproduce through spores and have no seeds or flowers. The life cycle of ferns begins with a diploid sporophyte phase that produces haploid spores by meiosis.The spore grows into a haploid gametophyte by mitosis. The gametophyte produces gametes by mitosis. Once a mobile, flagellate sperm fertilizes an egg, it remains attached to the prothallus, or the gametophyte form of the plant.The fertilized egg is now a diploid zygote and grows by mitosis into a diploid sporophyte. |