Monica Popescu
Full Text PDF |
gametophyte, sporophyte generations, assimilatory pigments.
Pteridophytes distinguishes from other land plants is that they have independent gametophyte and sporophyte generations. Half fern’s lives are spent in the gametophyte stage, or haplophase, and the other half in the sporophyte stage. Fern gametophytes have no vascular system, like bryophytes, and live on substrate surfaces as small individual plants, but their sporophytes have a vascular system enabling more vertical growth than gametophytes, resulting in a large herbaceous plant form. Many species are able to change the composition of their photosynthetic apparatus to optimize photosynthesis for the light environment in which they are growing. Measuremenst performed at fern gametophytes (Polypodium vulgare, Asplenium trichomanes and Cyptopteris fragilis) obtaines in vitro and in fern sporophytes (ten species) from the natural site showed that content of chlorophylls is both qualitatively and quantitatively similar to that of higher plants Chlorophyll content was much higher in sporophytes, which is in agreement with their higher photosynthetic rates. The highest amount of chlorophyll values was determined to species of Asplenium, and the lower value was in Lycopodium clavatum.
