Sporeling Establishment in Pteridium Aquilinum: Effects of Mineral Nutrients

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Abstract
Experimental sporelings of the common bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) were germinated and grown on substrata plentifully supplied with certain mineral nutrients. The young plants showed marked increase in growth with high supplies of K and N, especially when the N was available as ammonium salts. Both prothalli and young plants developed well in the presence of plentiful supplies of available Ca; and so bracken cannot be considered a calcifuge. Morphologically the increased growth was seen as an increase in the number of foliar organs initiated at stem apices, thereby increasing the number of secondary branches initiated abaxially at the bases of fronds. One experimental plant was allowed unchecked growth into a four-sectored trough, the soil in each sector being enriched with a different nutrient. After 2 years, this plant showed markedly different sectional development.

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