Author | Page, C.N. |
Year | 1982 |
Title | The Ferns of Britain and Ireland |
Type | Book/Report |
How Complete | All the native British species and hybrids known at the time |
Source | 447pp, Cambridge University Press |
Illustrations | Half-tone photocopies of fronds |
Review (by Malcolm Storey) | Identification is by means of either a pictorial key to groups, or a so-called multi-access key. The former will help to narrow down the species, but the multi-access key is merely an unstructured list of characters with the species that fit listed beside each - it is left to the reader to collate the species common to the matching characters. Furthermore, the classes are not exclusive - eg there is a list of species with fronds up to 30cm tall and another for those above 1m but the intermediate species aren’t listed. The species accounts are quite full, even for the hybrids and the accompanying distribution map and photocopied fronds will generally be sufficent to make an identification. Proper confirmation often requires use of a compound microscope to examine spores or sporangia and this is also given. |
Examine | with x8 or x10 hand lens ( Compound Microscope is also useful) |
Specimen Preparation | Spore or sporangial preps needed in some cases, esp. for hybrids. |
Identification difficulty | Care needed. |
Notes & Purpose | Status | Taxon | English | Classification |
---|---|---|---|---|
For identification, contains Checklist, Distribution map | Superseded | PTERIDOPHYTA | ferns and allies | Plantae |
Unless otherwise expressly stated, all original material on the BioInfo website by Malcolm Storey is licensed under the above Creative Commons Licence.