Cougar Mountain – A Lesson in Action
June 2, 2011 at 1:00 am 2 comments
When Ryan and I were at The New York Botantical Gardens I ran across a sign about the fern lifecycle. It taught me how first fern spores make a Heart in Nature gametophyte that has both egg and sperm. Only when an egg and sperm combine, do you get a new fern.
Fern Lifecycle (Source East Stroudsburg University)
Exactly two weeks and roughly 3000 miles later, Ryan and I saw part of fern reproduction in action while hiking Washington state’s Cougar Mountain:
Fern Spores on the De Leo Wall Trail
We learned a lesson on one coast and saw it in action on the other!
More pictures of Cougar Mountain can be found on my Flickr site. For more detailed trail descriptions of Cougar Mountain hikes, I highly recommend the Weekend Hike blog.
Entry filed under: Cougar Mountain, Fern, Hiking, The New York Botanical Garden. Tags: .
1.
Kitty | June 2, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Where there’s true love (hearts!), there often soon come babies!!❤ even in the world of ferns. I LOVE that you share my vision of the world–hearts and love all around us!
2.
geekhiker | June 6, 2011 at 2:39 pm
I love ferns. Don’t know why, they’re not exactly flashy or anything, but there’s something simple and ancient about them that I can’t resist…