Fun With C-Ferns (and a Vitamin B1 Supplement) Days of GrowthC1C2A1A2B1B2Additional Observatories Day 1 Seeds were sown Day 3 No germination Day 6 No germination Day 8 Developed rhizoids Bacteria growth in A2 and C2 Day 10 Sexual Differentiation Sexual Differentatio n Day 13 Developed Archegonia Day 15 Developed Archegonia Bacteria growth in C1 Day 17 Sporophytes present Day 19 Introduction: The fern lifecycle begins with a haploid spores. After a week, those haploid spores will then become haploid gametophytes. By week three of the fern lifecycle, the haploid gametophytes with undergo sexual differentiation and will become either males or females. Then finally during week four of the lifecycle, fertilization will occur between the males and females. The fertilization of the male and female gametophytes will cause diploid sporophytes to come about, and at the end of week four, meiosis may take place and those diploid sporophytes will release haploid spores starting the process of the fern lifecycle all over again. Based on the fern lifecycle and our knowledge of the affects vitamin B1 on plants, our group decided that our question would be, how would a vitamin B1 supplement affect the speed of a C-fern ’ s lifecycle? We decided up this question and experiment because we found that Lilly Miller ’ s Vitamin B1 Plant Starter supplement, which is the B1 supplement we used, is designed to help root growth and reduce transplant shock for plants. We, also, chose to deal with vitamin B1 in our experiment because a group member could easily get to it and it was efficient for us to use. Based upon that knowledge, we hypothesized that the B1 supplement would speed up the development of C-ferns. The results to our experiments have shown us little to support our thesis. Though it did not do the opposite, what it showed us was not something completely trustable due to the probability of errors. What did show us little support in our hypothesis is on our data table, between days thirteen and fifteen, one can see that our subjective plants for the concentrations A (0.25ml vitamin supplement/64ml distilled water) and B (0.30ml vitamin supplement/64ml distilled water) reached the stage at which archegonia was present before the control, C, was able to. This may have just been a flaw because all other growth from stage to stage listed on the table are the same when compared to each other. Our hypothesis may not be able to rely on this bit of evidence alone, so we are stating it as “inconclusive”. Other possible sources of error may include the inability to identify stages of plant development properly, improper mixing of solutions A and B, the arrangement of spores within the Petri dishes, contaminates inside the Petri dish, untested agar, and the fact that no two plants are exactly alike. Should a future testing of our hypothesis be attempted, we recommend having a control for the agar as to ensure the functionality of it, multiple fern-testing Petri dishes to better accuracy, and a more exact way of defining growth between stages of C-Fern plant life. Bronwyn, Hailey, Gaby, and David