Experimental studies on gametophytic generation of pteris species from mt. karol (dist. solan) himachal pradesh

A fern gametophyte is a small, photosynthetic organism which has the capability to grow normally in a culture. It bears both the sex organs indicating that self- fertilization is probably the rule. But this would lead to a great deal of homozygosity and hence little morphological variation. Actually ferns exhibit a lot of morphological and cytological variation. The objective of this study was to investigatethe reason for these variations. In the present work the gametophytic development of the three species of Pteris have been described, P. pseudoquadriaurita, P. stenophylla and P. vittata subsp. vittata. The ripe spores of these species were raised on half Knop’s nutrient medium and their growth was studied.