Small is beautiful

Sporangium and spores of fern Polypody (microscope x100)

In the silence of winter, the coming explosion of spring and summer life is being prepared in secret.

Let’s have a look to polypody to see the sporangia that are maturing.

Sores (groups of sporangia) of fern Polypody (magnifier x10)

Sores (groups of sporangia) of fern Polypody

Under the microscope here are the spores, beans like, protected by the membrane of sporangium which has a specific structure like a zip. After warmer days which will cause deshydratation this structure will lead to the opening of the sporangium and the realease of spores. Then the cycle will go on:

The name Polypodium comes from the Greck poly « numerous », and podion « small foot » after the small « roots » of the rhizoma.

Polypody has traditional uses in cooking for its aroma and sweet taste close to liquorice, and in herbal medicine as a purgative and vermifuge.

I wish you a 2018 year as wonderful, lively, sweet, full of hope and abundance than this tiny little fern. 

Life is there, below the frost

Polypodium vulgare in the morning with tiny pearl of frost at every end of the veins.

On the other side of the fern leaf frond are the sori, cluster of sporangia (structures producing and containing spores) which allow reproduction in ferns and fungi.

Bien vivante sous le givre

Grace au givre de ces jours-ci vous pouvez voir vivre cette fougère.

Il s’agit d’un polypode commun (Polypodium vulgare L.). Par transparence, on peut voir les nervures qui irriguent la plante comme le font nos artères.

Chaque ramification des nervures se termine par une perle de givre. Au même endroit, mais sur la face inférieure de la fronde, se trouvent les sores, groupes de sporanges qui contiennent les spores, cellules reproductrices chez les fougères.