How does bracken compete?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

January 16, 2003

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Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum (Linnaeus) Kuhn) is a cosmopolitan species (found around the world). Unlike most ferns which like consistent moisture, bracken grow on drier sites. Bracken fronds arise from alternate branches of a thick rhizome; the main rhizome produces no fronds and may grow as deep as two meters underground.

Bracken are pioneers and invade recently cleared ground and pastures.
Heather and Bracken on Forest Edge in Late Summer, Scotland Photographic Print
Mark Hamblin Buy Photographic Print at AllPosters.com

Farmers and ranchers consider bracken a nuisance species. The plants are pioneers and invade recently cleared ground and pastures. Bracken are survivors, the species has been around for about fifty-five million years and can be found everywhere but deserts and wet sites.

Bracken has several adaptations to surviving. Dried, the fronds are readily flammable and support fires which burn away competing vegetation. The fronds also produce terpenes, phenols, and tannins which make the plants distasteful to animals. But if grazers have little forage and are forced to eat bracken, cattle develop haematuria, horses become thiamine (B1) deficient. The plant poisons not only animals but other plants by releasing allelopathic chemicals.

Bracken poisons animals and other plants by releasing allelopathic chemicals.
Red Deer, Stag in Bracken, Autumn Colours, UK Photographic Print
Mark Hamblin Buy Photographic Print at AllPosters.com

Bracken spores are produced on the underside edge of the pinnae (leaflets). Each frond is estimated to produce around three hundred million spores. The spores germinate and grow into gametophytes. The gametophytes in turn develop archegonia which contain ovules and antheridia which produces flagellated sperm cells. The sperm travel on a film of water to the archegonia. The fusion of the ovules and sperm produce the sporophyte, the fern.

Bracken gametophytes even poison the gametophytes of other ferns. The chemical called an antheridiogen causes the premature development of the antheridia on immature gametophytes. The ovules and sperm cells are out-of-sync and never develop into ferns. ("Possible antheridiogens isolated from culture media and gametophytes of the fern Pteridium aquilinum", Jonathan P McEwen and Joan E. N. Hudson, Department of Biological Sciences, Sam Houston State University)

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has a great photograph and drawing of Bracken (Pteridium aquilinumt and its rhizome. To view the photograph and drawing, click on the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracken

The Olympus Microscopy Resource Center has a great micrograph of a cross-section of the rhizome. To view the micrograph, click on the link:

http://www.olympusmicro.com/micd/galleries/brightfield/pteridiumrhizome.html

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