A fern or fern-ally; member of a group of plants with alternating generations, the main generation producing spores.
Colloquial term used for all seedless vascular plants, e.g. lycopods and ferns, a polyphyletic assemblage.
A large class of plants, some fossil members of which were among the earliest land plants, characterized by a lack of seeds and flowers, their means of dispersal being primarily minute spores that are carried by the wind. The ferns are the largest class of existing pteridophytes but they also include the clubmosses (Lycopodium and Selaginella) and the horsetails (Equisetum).