Pteridologist 2003
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PTERIDOLOGIST 2003 CONTENTS Volume 4 Part 2, 2003 EDITORIAL James Merryweather Instructions to authors Editor LETTERS Beavers and Quillworts Steve Leonard 30 Osmunda Sporelings Jack Bouckley 30 Various Madge Stokes 44 NEWS & COMMENT PHOTO: HEATHER McHAFFIE New Fern Garden in York Cemetery Jack Bouckley 31 Among the stylised plant carvings of "Polystachion" James Merryweather 33 the late 15th century in Rosslyn Cystopteris diaphana found in Cornwall Editor 34 Chapel, a few miles south of BPS Merchandise Bryan & Gill Smith 34 Edinburgh, there is a realistic Peter Hainsworth's Ferns Editor 35 representation of hart's tongue fern Aliens and Foreigners Alastair C. Wardlaw 64 with forked fronds on the capital of the GROWING FERNS Apprentice Pillar (above). Ferns in My Garden: Ophioglossum vulgatum Jack Bouckley 35 The Five Best Ferns for the British Garden? Adrian Dyer 36 PLANT BADGES OF SCOTTISH CLANS James Merryweather 40 ROBERT DICK, BAKER OF THURSO Ted Munyard 41 FERNS IN GRAVE SITUATIONS Heather McHaffie 42 TREE-FERN NEWSLETTER No. 9 Alastair C Wardlaw ed. 45 Tree-Fern Mini-Symposium - Major Changes at Rickard's Hardy Ferns Ltd. - The Galápagos Tree Fern - Cyathea weatherbyana - Cyathea smithii in Linn Botanical Gardens - Temperature Buffers for Tree-Fern Crowns. FOCUS ON FERNERIES: Ascog Hall James Merryweather 51 PHOTO: HEATHER McHAFFIE IDENTIFICATION: Those Terrible Twins (Blechnum) Sylvia Martinelli 54 Authors of successive guidebooks KILLARNEY FERN CONSERVATION 'Sentinel' 58 since the late 19th century have agreed ADVERTISEMENT: BPS Special Publications 61 on the identification of this fern, which has been recorded in the semi-natural THE HIDDEN WORLD OF FERN SPORES Barry Wright 62 woodland of nearby Roslin Glen for BOOK REVIEWS more than a century, and the forked New Zealand Ferns and Allied Plants Alison Paul 33 form occurs there too (below, a frond PJ Brownsey & JCSmith-Dodsworth collected about 200 m from the chapel Nos Fougéres/Unsere Farne Gregor Kozlowski Josephine M Camus 44 in 2002). Forking like this is not Pteridophyta of Nepal Naresh Thapa Josephine M Camus 44 uncommon in Asplenium scolopen- drium, so its forked form is likely to Unless stated otherwise, photographs were supplied by the authors of the have occurred there in the 1400s when articles in which they appear. the pillar was carved. Adrian Dyer Cover picture by Sylvia Martinelli: Blechnum chilense photographed on a fjord-side in the province of Aisen, near Puyahaupi (see article on page 54). DISCLAIMER Views expressed by contributors to Pteridologist are not necessarily those of the British Pteridological Society. Copyright © 2003 British Pteridological Society. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means) without the permission of the British Pteridological Society. PHOTO: ADRIAN DYER NEWS & COMMENT LETTERS BEAVERS & QUILLWORTS E-mail correspondence between Clive Jermy and American Wildlife Officer, Steve Leonard, produced copy worthy of publication. Dear Clive, The work was performed for the Camp Shelby Army Reserve and National Guard Training Site in Mississippi (CSTS). The quillwort is Louisiana quillwort (Isoëtes louisianensis Thieret), listed in 1992 as open space, too, and their territorial Range 45 with darker strips of hardwood "endangered" by the US Fish & Wildlife expansion has also cramped the US Army. shrubs along drains where quillworts grow with Service, based on a handful of colonies in Not to be dissuaded, the Army is putting the evergreen Magnolia virginiana. two parishes of Louisiana. At the present the finishing touches on an even newer $25 time, this handsome little tetraploid is million tank range where they trapped the known from more than 175 streams - some tortoises and relocated them to safer intermittent to ephemeral - from south- LETTERS central Alabama across southern ground, built an anti-tortoise fence around, Mississippi and ending in the original two and installed $25,000 tortoise excluder OSMUNDA SPORELINGS parishes of Louisiana. devices in the roads, the Army's version of I estimate the range-wide population at a $200 cattle guard. Good news from Askham Bog, south- 72,000 plants. Because of its federal status, Quillworts downstream were to be west of York, which is one of very few the gov'ment must spend many dollars, protected from turbidity plumes and local sites for Osmunda regalis. euros and Chinese yuans to "investigate" sediment by brush dams (they didn't work Reserve management has included everything pertaining to Louisiana effectively) but the beaver dams saved the some tree felling, leaving much more quillwort, its environment & ecology, and day. light to get through to the ground possible impacts from human activity. My hypothesis stated that beaver ponds plants. Where the trees have been The site in question is Range 45, a must be adversely impacting Louisiana cleared there are now, for the first time state-of-the-art automated tank artillery quillworts and quillwort habitat because for many years, some new royal fern range that was constructed before it the pond becomes a sediment trap. sporophytes. became known that quillworts are nestled Impoundment ends the substrate scour in the heart of its drainages. Not only does activity of the free-flowing stream during This is excellent news, as no sporelings their presence alter range maintenance flood events, thereby eliminating habitat have been seen at Askham for decades plans but it also affects the mobility of for sporelings, and probably results in and one of the very large plants, one soldiers to zip through the wetlands at their quillwort mortality from deep water which the late Jim Russell and I saw pleasure. inundation. growing in 1987, has since died. At the Unfortunately for the military, the The findings show that (a) beaver time the fern was in such a poor federally-listed gopher tortoise liked the traffic, dragging brush constantly to repair condition that Jim wrote to the owners, the dam and/or lodge provides the scour Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, expressing effect; and (b) plants did not die off when his dismay. Its loss is a great pity as it inundated for 10 months (0.6 m to about had been a magnificent specimen with 1.2 m depth, in water that is deeply tannin- fronds up to about eight feet long, if stained. I couldn't see them but could not more. Other ancient specimens are "feel" them underwater). also deteriorating but one magnificent In other locations, the beaver dam itself plant still thrives. When Julia Wilkins with its several leaks makes for a braided and I visited the site in 2001 we found stream where a single channel formerly seven of these ferns growing in various existed. With beaver and other wildllife places, but they were all mature plants, (raccoons, opossum, muskrat, etc.) visiting several of them deteriorating. let us the shores of these braided channels, the hope that the new arrivals really grow embankment habitat is much improved for into large plants to grace this place quillwort colonization. In the end, it where Osmunda has grown for appears that beavers could be a quillwort's centuries. best friend. Beaver pond in November 2000 Steve Leonard Jack Bouckley P.O. Box 310, Wiggins, 209 Woodfield Road, Louisiana quillworts on the bank of a Harrogate HG1 4JE braided channel downstream from the dam. MS 39577, USA 30 Pteridologist 4, 2 (2003) NEWS & COMMENT YORK CEMETERY Jack Bouckley In 1837 the following appeared in the Yorkshire Gazette announcing the first burial at York’s new cemetery, that of 25 year old Charlotte Hall on 21 January 1837: “This is the first breaking of the sod to inhume a mortal’s remains in the spot but how many must follow in the train is past calculation”. A lovely flower removed, alas, how soon from the tender watchful care that had reared and cherished it to be THE FIRST transplanted into this garden of death yet not to continue here for ever but at the appointed season to be taken into the paradise of God. During the following 165 years there have been over 122,000 bodies interred in PHOTO: BARRY WRIGHT over 28,000 graves. The exact numbers I Gala, Harrogate, to get funds for local We had them planted at York within a do not know, but this I do know: from this charities and for the Leeds and District couple of hours of digging them up thanks garden of death there now blossoms forth Fern Group, so what better cause in 1996 to the hard work put in by Julia who has life in the form of our newly-planted than to earmark the takings for this fernery. done whatever she has been invited to do, fernery. We had quite a good year and banked such as planting, digging, weeding and It started in 1995 when the well-known £233. catering. naturalist, Prof. Alastair Fitter of York Meanwhile, the cemetery staff started The ferns were growing so well in 2002 officially opened a heather bed in the old, to clear a border for us and James and I that several had to be split. Soon we shall neglected Backhouse rockery. James enlisted the help of Julia Wilkins who be able to provide potted specimens for Merryweather and I had been invited along readily agreed to do all she could. We sale in the cemetery flower shop. So far I to this event and, as we partook of asked Neil Timm to draw up plans for should think that about two thirds of the refreshments during the reception which furnishing and decorating the site. They job is done. Things are looking very good, followed, James said to me that it would were very impressive, but unfortunately but we still need another couple of hundred be very nice and proper if a plot of ground the trustees thought they were too plants, so if anyone would like to help in this area could be planted up as a ambitious, and that idea had to be shelved.