1. 1  a product of simple manual skill, as a plaited leather cord for the neck or a knife sheath, made typically by a camper or a scout. 2  work of little or no value done merely to keep or look busy. 3  a project funded by the federal government out of political favoritism that is of no real value to the community or the nation.
Unfurling fiddlehead fern frond. A frond is a large, divided leaf. In both common usage and botanical nomenclature, the leaves of ferns are referred to as fronds and some botanists restrict the term to this group. Other botanists allow the term frond to also apply to the large leaves of cycads and palms (Arecaceae).
The gametophytes of ferns, however, are very different from those of seed plants. Instead, they resemble liverworts. A fern gametophyte typically consists of: 1  Prothallus: A green, photosynthetic structure that is one cell thick, usually heart or kidney shaped, 3â10 mm long and 2â8 mm broad.he gametophyte of ferns is a free-living organism, whereas the gametophyte of the gymnosperms and angiosperms is dependent on the sporophyte. Life cycle of a typical fern: 1  A diploid sporophyte phase produces haploid spores by meiosis (a process of cell division which reduces the number of chromosomes by a half).