No comments about Rocky Mountain Flora: A Field Guide for the Identification of the Ferns, Conifers, and Flowering Plants of the Southern Rocky Mountains.

No comments about Bringing the Outdoors in: How to Do Wonders With Vines, Wildflowers, Ferns, Mosses, Bulbs, Cacti, and Dozens of Other Plants Most People Overlook.

No comments about Indoor Ferns.

No comments about A World of Ferns.

2 comments about Ferns and Fern Allies of the Trans-Pecos and Adjacent Areas.

1. [Ferns and Fern Allies of the Trans-Pecos and Adjacent Areas by Sharon C. Yarborough and A. Michael Powell], Native Plant Society of Texas News, 20 (Nov.-Dec. 2002): 3.

   To look at a fern is to travel back in time. Ferns date from over 300 million years ago, long before the appearance of the first flowering plant. Although I knew nothing of this remarkable ancestry when at a young age I saw my first ferns in the forests of Breton Woods, their delicate beauty nonetheless captivated my imagination. My childhood fascination with ferns was hardly unique, however. People have been attracted to ferns for some time. During the 19th Century, for instance, nothing less than a fern craze sprouted up in England, where suddenly once wild ferns were abundantly cultivated in gardens, purchased as indoor potted plants, and replicated in ornamental designs on numerous household items.*

   When I arrived in Austin in 1969, whatever fern-desire I may have harbored soon withered in the heat. Although my first Austin home was located on a creek site, all the land surrounding it was caliche-hardly ideal for ferns or much else. Ferns, I had always observed, thrive in a shady, moist habitat. It was not until many years later when an acquaintance of my daughter gifted us with ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron) that my fondness for ferns revived. While this Texas native plant may not be as aesthetically appealing as the more delicately textured wood fern (Thelypteris kunthii), it is both hardy and drought tolerant. I have become very attached to ebony spleenwort. Planted along the north side of my home's foundation, it has thrived, even remaining green throughout every winter. After a protracted stretch of heat and drought, it signals the need for some water by yellowing slightly.

   That there is yet more hope for Texas fern lovers who live in such dry places is evident in Sharon C. Yarborough and A. Michael Powell's new book. It identifies many native pteridophytes adapted to the arid conditions of the Trans-Pecos region-that Maine-sized western part of our state situated between the Rio Grande and the Pecos rivers where the average annual rainfall is a mere 12 inches. One of the intentions behind this book, in fact, is to promote the ferns of this locale as suitable candidates for xeriscaped home gardens.
   
   The Trans-Pecos ferns conserve water by producing hair-shaded fronds somewhat smaller in size than average. Some of these plants will wither after a long period of dryness, and yet these very same seemingly dead flora will immediately green up again whenever water becomes available. It is likely, moreover, that these plants reproduce more by asexual means-vegetative buds forming on a tiny heart-shaped prothallus that normally produces eggs and sperm on its underside when moisture is present. Fern reproduction is a curious business, in any event, and the authors of Fern and Fern Allies do very well explaining the intricate process so that it can be easily understood by lay readers.

   Including spikemosses, horsetails and scouring rushes, this attractive field guide provides detailed keys designed to facilitate plant identification in the wild. Besides useful information concerning the floral morphology and habitat conditions of Trans-Pecos pteridophytes, Yarborough and Powell provide 37 line drawings. In the matter of fern identification such detailed drawings are more helpful than photographs.

   A comparison with David L. Jones's Encyclopedia of Ferns and Boughton Cobb's A Field Guide to the Ferns, in the Peterson series, provides another measure of the value of Ferns and Fern Allies. Of the 15 examples in the new book of members of Cheilanthes, the largest genus of the maidenhair fern family, only 3 appear in Cox's book and only 2 in Jones's volume. Similarly, of the 11 members of Selaginellaceae (the spikemoss family) described in Fern and Fern Allies, 2 are included in Jones's work and none in Cobb's guide. As these statistics and results of a comparative review of the remaining plants both suggest, Fern and Fern Allies is as valuable as it is handy.

   What an invitation to adventure Yarborough and Powell's book provides. Like several columbines native to the same region, many of the Trans-Pecos ferns are hidden in unusual places. To be seen they must be searched out. And, as the authors note, "there are probably more rare treasures to be found in certain microhabitats" of that area of Texas. Let's hope so, and let's hope, too, that native plant nurseries will make some of these arid-adapted ferns available for our home garden landscapes.

   *See David E. Allen, The Victorian Fern Craze: A History of Pteridomania (London: Hutchinson, 1969).

   William J. Scheick, a former NPSOT vice-president, is also a member of the Central Texas Horticulture Council and a frequent contributor to Texas Gardener.




2. I have been interested in Trans-Pecos plants for over 20 years but have been terrified by the prospect of learning how to identify them by species. After one hour with this book I am 'fern savvy' and really enjoy identifying ferns in the field. It is very easy to read and understand, the technical terms are very clearly explained, the illustrations are excellent and I don't get frustrated and confused. I bought one for myself and then bought a second one to keep in my truck all the time and then bought 2 more for my job and my employee! Worth twice the money (don't raise the price!)

No comments about Flora of Alberta.

2 comments about Hawaii's Ferns and Fern Allies.

1. It is said that the most thoroughly investigated natural environment on Earth is the countryside within a day's walk of Oxford University. But the Hawaiian islands, the greatest natural history "laboratory" on Earth, are well up on that list.
   Nevertheless, there is so much here to know that some sectors of the natural world have been skimped. One is the ferns, which until now have not received a comprehensive review since before World War I.
   In "Hawaii's Ferns and Fern Allies," Daniel Palmer has his work cut out for him. Worldwide, many families with representatives in Hawaii have not been thoroughly studied. Here, there are quite a number of doubtful species, and considerable confusion due to misnaming or giving the same name to different species over the decades.
   One endemic species, Doryopteris takeuchii, was not discovered until 1988, though its location is hardly obscure -- it grows all over Diamond Head.
   Palmer, a dermatologist and tree farmer who divides his time between Hawaii and Michigan, tentatively concludes that there are 200 species of ferns and 21 allies (such as Lycopodiums) in the islands.
   Unlike flowering plants, where aliens now outnumber natives, the ferns of Hawaii are almost all (85 percent) natives. Of these, nearly three-quarters are known only from these islands.
   Only a handful of native ferns are thought to be extinct, but 29 species out of 144 are either rare or designated as endangered.
   Most, from tiny plants that are hardly ever noticed, to tree ferns, live in wet areas, but a few species have made homes on sunburnt rocks, even at high altitudes.
   Another few are aquatic, including Salvinia molesta, a floating plant that has become a serious weed, along with a small number of other imports.
   Most aliens are not weedy, but the popular staghorn ferns (Platyceriums) are "potentially serious invaders of native forests." Platycerium bifurcatum was found spreading into the wild on Maui in 1991.
   The Hawaiians, of course, have the longest experience with native ferns, some of which served as food, as medicine, as a source of glue for making up kapa (bark cloth, also known as tapa) and in rituals.
   Curiously, though, the fern most often seen in Hawaiian cultural contexts today, Physmatosorus grossus, is an alien.
   Called laua`e, this fern smells similar to maile (a fragrant native forest vine) and is used by dancers and in lei.
   But Palmer says this may be a confusion. A scented plant called laua`e is referred to in old Kauai lore, but it may not even have been a fern.
   William Hillebrand, who attempted to treat all known Hawaii ferns in his flora of 1888, did not include P. grossus, and the oldest example in scientific collections dates only from 1919.
   Apparently, P. grossus was brought in from the South Pacific within the past century and because it happened to have an odor similar to maile, the name migrated over. The original laua`e is somewhat mysterious but ethnobotanist Puanani Anderson-Wong concluded that it was the fern Microsorum spectrum, although that native is found on all islands, not just Kauai.
   M. spectrum is now known in Hawaiian as pe`ahi.
   There is a fair amount of this sort of lore in Palmer's book, although the bulk of it is technical. Because both amateurs and professionals have been in need of a guide to Hawaii's ferns, Palmer designed his book to be usable by both. A variety of typographical stunts makes it easy for amateurs to find the common or garden variety information.



2. As complete a guide as possible (so far) for identifying the myriad of ferns and their allies on the Hawaiian Islands. Far more complete than any other available publication.

2 comments about How to Know the Ferns and Fern Allies.

1. When a friend first introduced me to John Mickel's "How to know the ferns and fern allies" I was skeptical that Boughton Cobb's book (in the Peterson's series) could be bested. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is Mickel's book more up-to-date, but the drawings are all more cleanly rendered, allowing the beginner to focus on the most important features of fern identification. Range maps (which the Peterson guide lacks) let you eliminate many species not in your area. The price is a bit daunting, but for the serious field botanist this book is a must!



2. When a friend urged me to buy John Mickels' "How to Know the Ferns and Fern Allies" I was skeptical. I didn't think it could top Boughton Cobb's guide in the Peterson series. I was genuinely surprised by what I found. Mickel's book is superior in several ways. The drawings of fern anatomy are cleaner, letting the neophyte focus on the important features of fern identification. Range maps (missing from Cobb's book) let you eliminate species not in your area. And being a more recent publication, Mickel's taxonomic treatment is more up-to-date. However, I miss Boughton Cobb's outline drawings of fern blades, which are really neat for developing a general search image for species. That's why I keep both guides handy. You can never own enough field guides.

No comments about Gray's Manual of Botany: A Handbook of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Central and Northeastern U. S. and Adjacent Canada (Biosystematics, Floristi).

No comments about Ferns of Hawai'i.