https://www.thoughtco.com/fern-life-cycle-4158558
Fern reproduction is quite different from that of flowering plants. Here's how the life cycle works and the various ways ferns reproduce.
A fern is a plant. A plant is supposed to get pollinated by bees and whatnot. Yet ferns have sperm swimming around and fertilizing the lady-bits of other fern.
Mind blown.
Only flowering plants are pollinated by bees and even then not all of them. Ferns evolved before flowers existed so of course they need a different way to breed.
Truly interesting, isn’t it? Even cooler is that more ‘modern’ flowering plants do the same thing, but they have truncated and miniaturized the haploid phase so it is completely dependent on the diploid sporophyte.
Don’t get me started on mosses. I have to go to work!
Did you know that Richard Ayoade, who played Moss in 'the IT-crowd' debuted on tv in 'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'?
Flowering plants first evolved in the late Cretaceous. Ferns are old. Ferns are really old. They aren’t fertilized by insects
So basically they're just throwing horny Michael Phelpses (Michaels Phelp?) all around the place? I approve.