By definition, a fern is a vascular, flowerless plant with leafy fronds that produce spores for reproduction. Whether they add depth and dark green accents to your garden, spruce up a terrarium, or just remind you of scenes from Jurassic Park, ferns are truly remarkable plants. Ferns fern gully in jamaica some of the most ancient plants on planet Earth. In fact, only club mosses are older.

However, the ferns around today aren’t quite that prehistoric. These plants radiated during the Devonian period into the 10,000 fern species on earth today. In other words, the evolution of vascular plants allowed for plants to live out of the water. The first vascular plants began developing roots, stems, and leaves. Ferns are some examples we have of the first vascular plants to make their way to land.

Signs of prehistoric life are still present in modern ferns, including their reproductive cycle. The life cycle of a fern has a few distinct steps. Ferns evolved before plants had flowers or seeds, so how do they reproduce? Ferns actually have a multigenerational reproductive process! First, the spores are released from an adult fern.