Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Specific Families and Genera => Ferns => Topic started by: Bjarne on January 21, 2012, 04:44:18 PM

Title: Unknown fern
Post by: Bjarne on January 21, 2012, 04:44:18 PM
Does anyone know the name of this fern? :-)
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Bjarne on January 21, 2012, 04:46:40 PM
some more pictures...
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: manicbotanic on January 21, 2012, 06:19:30 PM
dryopteris cycadina maybe...maybe not. :-\
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Hoy on January 21, 2012, 07:33:27 PM
Well Bjarne, seems to be right, doesn't it? Looks very exclusive too. I look forward to see mine in a year or two. (Thank you Bjarne  ;) )
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Maggi Young on January 21, 2012, 08:29:53 PM
http://hardyfernlibrary.com/ferns/listspecies.cfm?auto=32        :)
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Hoy on January 22, 2012, 07:48:25 AM
http://hardyfernlibrary.com/ferns/listspecies.cfm?auto=32        :)
Quite, thanks, Maggi. Seems to be a very nice species.
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Bjarne on January 22, 2012, 12:08:48 PM
Thank you very much for help to find the name of fern :-)
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: annew on January 22, 2012, 12:12:47 PM
When the new fronds unfurl, it is fantastic - like an animal covered in black hair.
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Maggi Young on January 22, 2012, 12:20:54 PM
I think I have this.... will need to pay attention when the new fronds come.

Fern IDs make me feel really inadequate. we have quite a few nice ones...some gifted by a late friend and some  grown from  spores.
We had no confidence that the spores would take so we were lazy about the labelling... result is we have no idea what most of them are. So embarrassing. :-[ :-X
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Hoy on January 22, 2012, 02:14:20 PM
I think I have this.... will need to pay attention when the new fronds come.

Fern IDs make me feel really inadequate. we have quite a few nice ones...some gifted by a late friend and some  grown from  spores.
We had no confidence that the spores would take so we were lazy about the labelling... result is we have no idea what most of them are. So embarrassing. :-[ :-X

Not at all! Almost all my ferns(and other plants) are without identity! That is I am too lazy to have a backup and when the labels disappear, often sooner than later, they become anonymous! - if I don't recall the name which in most cases I do not ;D  I am quite happy with it that way (most of the time).
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Graham Catlow on January 22, 2012, 08:02:18 PM
When the new fronds unfurl, it is fantastic - like an animal covered in black hair.

I agree Anne. Something really prehistoric!

Two photos of Dryopteris wallichiana unfurling.

Can anyone hazard a guess on the third photo please. Or rather than guessing provide me with an id ???

Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Hoy on January 22, 2012, 09:18:22 PM
When the new fronds unfurl, it is fantastic - like an animal covered in black hair.

I agree Anne. Something really prehistoric!

Two photos of Dryopteris wallichiana unfurling.

Can anyone hazard a guess on the third photo please. Or rather than guessing provide me with an id ???


Yes, a dramatic sight! Not very plantlike!

Can your fern be a Blechnum? Blechnum nipponicum maybe?
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Maggi Young on January 22, 2012, 09:54:49 PM
Your third fern, Graham... perhaps Blechnum spicant?
http://hardyfernlibrary.com/ferns/listSpecies.cfm?Auto=102

Aren't the fronds of B. nipponicum more "bowed out" in the middle? (while the B. spicant fronds are more elegantly elongated?)
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: annew on January 23, 2012, 08:44:19 AM
Blechnum spicant, I reckon.
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Graham Catlow on January 23, 2012, 01:06:22 PM
Thanks, Hoy, Maggi and Anne.

After Hoy had indicated B. nipponicum I thought I would have a look for it in the RHS plantfinder to see how common it might be. It indicated only one nursery as a supplier, so I began to think it would be unlikely to be that species. However, the next step took me to Scotland and the next step took me to Binny’s nursery, which is a few miles up the road from where I live. It was given to me by someone I know purchases from Binny’s. They no longer have it in their catalogue but they do have B. spicant.
So, it's possible it could have been nipponicum.
Graham
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Hoy on January 23, 2012, 02:10:38 PM
Blechnum spicant, I reckon.
B. spicant
I thought of that too - it is one of the commoner ferns here - but I've never noticed that wide rosette of any B. spicant here.

Graham, you must solve this :)
Here is a picture of nipponicum: http://yuzawa-engei.net/11English/04Artemisia/Artemisia_page.html
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Maggi Young on January 23, 2012, 02:48:05 PM
Link to  nice pic of the B. nipponicum, Trond.
It shows what I was trying to say... that the B. spicant leaf is linear while the  B. nipponicum leaf is lanceolate, fatter in the middle section.
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Roma on January 23, 2012, 05:49:06 PM
Some lovely plants on that site, Trond.  I won't be buying plants from Japan but it's nice to look.
Pusatilla sugawarii is fantastic.
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Graham Catlow on January 23, 2012, 06:32:21 PM
Blechnum spicant, I reckon.
B. spicant
I thought of that too - it is one of the commoner ferns here - but I've never noticed that wide rosette of any B. spicant here.

Graham, you must solve this :)
Here is a picture of nipponicum: http://yuzawa-engei.net/11English/04Artemisia/Artemisia_page.html

Hi Trond,
It is the wide rosette that made me wonder in the first place. I can't find any spicant photos that show it quite as obviously as does this one. But I can see what Maggi is saying about the leaf shape. It hasn't increased in several years either and I think that spicant increases quite quickly doesn't it.
The person I got it from hasn't bought any nipponicum so it can't be that.
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Maggi Young on January 23, 2012, 06:50:24 PM
As well as being fatter, don't nipponicum leaves have more movement in them? The spicant ones are kind of stiff.

You have the fern growing very well , at a bit of an angle, in a confined space of the trough - would that not impact on the way it grows?
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Graham Catlow on January 23, 2012, 08:51:29 PM


You have the fern growing very well , at a bit of an angle, in a confined space of the trough - would that not impact on the way it grows?

Yes you are correct Maggi it was gently manouvered into a hole in the log, and is growing on a verticle plane and that might have some effect on it.
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Maggi Young on January 23, 2012, 08:59:43 PM
Some pix here which show a rather circled growth and a pic of the reverse of a frond... may be helpful?
http://botany.cz/cs/blechnum-spicant/
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Graham Catlow on January 23, 2012, 09:38:11 PM
Thanks Maggi,
I will have a closer look tomorrow, its a bit dark outside at the moment ;)
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Hoy on January 24, 2012, 11:34:40 AM
Some lovely plants on that site, Trond.  I won't be buying plants from Japan but it's nice to look.
Pusatilla sugawarii is fantastic.

I ordered some plants from them last autumn. It took exactly 1 week from the plants were shipped till I had them in my hand at home!


Maggi, I agree that the fronds are very similar to spicant.
Title: Re: Unknown fern
Post by: Graham Catlow on January 25, 2012, 04:51:05 PM
Well, I've had a good look and I think from the photos the conclusion is it has to be B. spicant

Thanks Maggi and Hoy for taking the time to investigate.

Graham
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