In apospory the converse phenomenon is seen, the gametophyte springing vegetatively from the sporangium, receptacle of the sorus, or leaf-margin of the fern-plant.
Individual canes grow vegetatively for one year, initiate flower buds in late summer, fruit the following summer, then die.
While a number of ferns can be multiplied vegetatively, by buds formed on the leaves and in other ways, the regular mode of propagation is by sowing the spores shed from the ripe sporangia.