Embryo

Within the archegonial venter the zygote undergoes characteristic cell divisions to form the embryo, which remains encapsulated in the gametophyte until it breaks out and becomes an independent plant. The pattern of development in most ferns is a distinctive one, and indeed only in the Botrychium subgenus Sceptridium and in all species of the family Marattiaceae thus far studied are found conditions of embryonic development resembling those of seed plants. Here the first division of the zygote is transverse. The inner cell grows inward, producing the stem and first leaf, and the outer cell divides to form a foot, a mass of tissue that exists as part of the embryo and disappears when its function, presumably absorption, is completed. The root appears later within the stem and grows outward. In all other known ferns the zygote divides neatly into four quadrants, the first division approximately parallel to the long axis of the archegonium and the following division at right angles. This results in initial cells that give rise to four organs: the outer forward cell (i.e., toward the growing apex of the gametophyte and the neck of the archegonium) becomes the first leaf, the inner forward cell the stem apex, the outer back cell the first root, and the inner back cell the foot. Thus, the majority of ferns tend to have a precise arrangement of their organs and the divisions that produce them in the embryo.

The young sporophytes of ferns remain attached to the gametophytes for varying lengths of time, absorbing nutrients from the gametophyte through the foot. Once the sporophyte has developed independent existence and the root has penetrated the soil, the gametophyte soon shrivels.