trying my hand at writing a video about fern sex again and I’m obsessed with the alternation of generations diagram on the American fern society’s website that (in addition to the typical bio textbook life cycle of just one fern drawn so it looks like it’s inbreeding) also depicts a girls’ night of ferns sitting near one another having sex on a blank background, thus contextualizing the dynamics a group of girlies usually has instead of just trying to show only one. it just brings me joy
oh to be a fern having sex with other ferns on a white background……
For everyone confused: Ferns go through two alternating generations, the big asexually reproducing sporophytes (the ones we normally think of as ferns) and the little sexually reproducing gametophytes (very tiny, look like leaves).
This image shows sporophytic selfing, where the big asexual fern makes little sexual ferns without breeding (since it has no sperm or eggs); outcrossing, where the little sexual ferns breed with others to make big asexual ferns; and gametophytic selfing, where one little sexual fern makes big asexual ferns by breeding with itself (a sad world).
Fun fact: flowering plants also do this–the little gametophytes just live inside the sporophyte’s flowers! Pollen is just a bunch of little male gametophytes :)
