PTERIDOLOGIST 2004 GRAVEYARD FERNS # CONTENTS IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA Volume 4 Part 3, 2004 Being enchanted by the new get-up of the Fern Magazine I would like to contribute some pictures towards the next issue of EDITORIAL Pteridologist. Instructions to authors James Merryweather As you might know it is not so easy to find representation of fern fronds carved in LETTERS sandstone or marble. Graveyard Ferns in Poland and Lithuania Elzbieta Zenkteler 65 When I was visiting old cemeteries I Early Ferning Yvonne Golding 66 found two interesting tombstones: first at The Danger of Snow James Merryweather 66 Sandomierz (a small town in the south-east Ferns Diversified in the Shadow of Angiosperms Yvonne Golding 66 part of Poland) and second in Vilno (a famous Polish cemetery "The Rossa" in NEWS & COMMENT the capital of Lithuania). Book announcement: A Natural History of Ferns Robbin C. Moran 66 Woodsia ilvensis Re-introduction Programme Heather McHaffie 67 Lophosoria on Arran Alastair C. Wardlaw 68 IN THE GARDEN Ferns in My Garden: Asplenium scolopendrium Jack Bouckley 69 Two Cheers for Bracken Martin Spray 70 IDENTIFICATION Shield Ferns in Cornwall & The Isles of Scilly Rosaline J. Murphy 76 British Shield Ferns James Merryweather 77 Polypodium cambricum in the New Forest Robin Walls et al. 79 TREE-FERN NEWSLETTER No. 10 Alastair C Wardlaw ed. 80 Tombstone in Sandomierz, Poland Tree-Fern Conservation? Peter Lynch 81 Man who named first Dicksonia sabred by assassin Alastair Wardlaw 82 Dicksonia antarctica in London Alastair Wardlaw 83 World distribution of Dicksonia species Alastair Wardlaw 84 Tree ferns on herbarium sheets. Alastair Wardlaw 85 FOCUS ON FERNERIES Swiss Garden Grotto & Fernery Nick Aikman 86 Hainsworth Collection at Attadale Gardens James Merryweather 88 THE BPS SPORE EXCHANGE Anne & Barry Wright 90 FERNS AS ART: Fragile Ferns Susan Rossi-Wilcox & Stuart Lindsay 92 COVER PICTURE: Hard shield fern Polystichum aculeatum, one of the subjects of our Identification section (see page 76). Tombstone in Vilno, Lithuania Unless stated otherwise, photographs were supplied by the authors of the articles in which they appear. Elzbieta Zenkteler Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza, DISCLAIMER Views expressed by contributors to Pteridologist are not necessarily those of the British Instytut Biologii Eksperymentalnej, Pteridological Society. Zaklad Botaniki Ogolnej, Copyright © 2004 British Pteridological Society. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may 61-713 POZNAN, be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means) Aleja Niepodlegosci 14 without the permission of the British Pteridological Society. POLAND Pteridologist 4, 3 (2004) 65 NEWS & COMMENT # LETTERS # A NATURAL EARLY FERNING HISTORY Many moons ago, whilst an undergraduate at the University of York, I did my OF FERNS third year project on possible subspecies of Bracken. This of course turned out to by be a can-o-worms but little did I know at the time. To this end, during the Robbin C. Moran summer of 1988, I took my two daughters on a so-called holiday to Arran where we trailed around looking at bracken sites. In fact we had a very nice time, This new book will be published in staying at the charming youth hostel at Lochranza. September. It is a non-technical work, Later that summer my youngest daughter Amy (then 8 years old) went on a about 300 pages long with 145 line summer camp to the Forest of Dean. One evening I had a very excited phone call drawings or photos and 26 colour plates. from Amy exclaiming: "Mummy, mummy I’m having a great time and I’ve There are 33 chapters, grouped into six found 7 different species of bracken and I’ve pressed them all in newspaper for general categories: Life cycle, you". Well this was a very exciting prospect indeed. When she returned I opened classification, fossil ferns, fern geography, the newspaper with great anticipation and trembling hands. In the package I adaptations, and ferns and people. It is not found seven crumpled fronds. One was indeed bracken but there was also one a field guide, but explains how ferns grow each of lady fern, male fern and broad buckler fern. The other fronds looked to and develop, disperse and reproduce, adapt and evolve. In short, what ferns are doing be 3 distinct forms of Dryopteris affinis. out there in nature. Robbin writes I gave her 10/10 for observation and a Mars Bar but decided to keep quiet. exceptionally well (see Pteridologist 3:1, Amy is now something in the theatre and I work on the behaviour of hoverflies! 1996) and this book should interest all Yvonne Golding members of BPS. [email protected] FERNS DIVERSIFIED IN THE SNOW DAMAGE SHADOW OF ANGIOSPERMS This year I noticed that a magnificent plant of Blechnum chilense in Attadale It is not often that ferns make the Gardens (see page 88) looked much rougher than usual in spring. Every stipe was hallowed pages of the leading bent and twisted at or just below the insertion of the lowest pair of pinnae. The scientific journal Nature, but in the reason was sheer weight of snow which lay over 6 inches thick for a couple of April issue a group of scientists from weeks at the end of February. The remedy? I had been greatly amused by one of America, Mexico and Germany report the Attadale gardeners who I saw take a broom to the flat sprays of a cedar, a new phylogenetic analysis of ferns. sweeping the snow away. I had presumed he was engaged on pointless, low- It is based on molecular data, with constraints from a reassessment of the season work creation, but soon learned that snow can seriously damage good fossil record. They suggest that a full trees, so it's a very necessary job in a show garden. I was assured by the head understanding of fern diversification gardener that the same process will be applied to ferns next winter if necessary. and evolution using only palaeo- James Merryweather botanical evidence is problematic because of the poor taxonomic resolution of the fern fossil record in the Cretaceous. Past theories have suggested that the rise of the angiosperms during the Cretaceous led to a decline in fern diversity and abundance. This new work reports that polypod ferns, which represent more than 80% of living fern species, diversified in the Cretaceous, after angiosperms, suggesting that this may represent an ecological opportunistic response to the diversification of angiosperms and their subsequent domination of terrestrial ecosystems. To read more see: Nature 428:1 April, 2004 <www.nature.com/nature> Yvonne Golding 66 Pteridologist 4, 3 (2004) NEWS & COMMENT Many people will be aware that attempts plants and there is always the concern that have been made by the Royal Botanic Woodsia ilvensis such populations suffer from inbreeding depression. It was therefore decided that Garden Edinburgh to re-introduce RE-INTRODUCTION PROGRAMME Woodsia ilvensis into several secret sites. the Teesdale re-introductions would be Heather McHaffie As a UK Biodiversity Action Plan species made up of plants grown from spores RGBE, 20A Inverleith Row, W. ilvensis is of great conservation representing all of the surviving British Edinburgh EH3 5LR concern as there are now fewer than 100 populations. It is difficult to make clumps in Britain. As a last-ditch attempt be nearer to the preferred habitat. All the comparisons between the successes of to encourage regeneration three re- plants that were re-introduced were plants from different provenances as each introductions have been made. In 2003 I derived from locally produced spores from planting position has its own unique visited the re-introduction localities, one both of the nearest wild populations - conditions and there is no clear indication near Moffat, the other two close together in consisting of two plants and one plant, not from the monitoring data of the relative Teesdale. After an exceptionally warm very large populations! It is because the success of plants from the different summer it was thought that the plants original populations had declined to so few populations. might have been suffering, especially as plants that a re-introduction was felt to be A new re-introduction was started in dryness is a possible cause for decline of appropriate. autumn 2003 at another site in the Borders the existing plants. On succes- north of Moffat. The Carrifran sive visits it was noticeable Wildwood project is an that the Border hills all around exciting scheme that plans to the old Woodsia localities still reforest a whole catchment managed to produce some very area. Using local seed, where wet days, and the weather in possible, trees are being the hills was very different planted in appropriate groups from that nearer the coast. to span from the river bank Cloud on the hill is probably right up to montane willows. an important part of their Above this level was a site habitat. from which W. ilvensis was The Moffat re-introduction, repeatedly collected and has made in September 1999, is in now long since gone. Two a steep-sided gully with rope surveys on the cliffs approximately north and failed to find any more plants south-facing sides. The plants so the first phase of Woodsia on the south-facing side were planting commenced in the planted into rock crevices or autumn of 2003. In the spring on ledges. This is an especially difficult The Teesdale re-introductions are at we will also try placing gametophytes into habitat to plant successfully. The north- two sites with a southern and northern crevices, which might be a better option facing plants were mostly planted into aspect.