Specific Families and Genera > Ferns

Fern Spores

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Kristl Walek:
Is anyone here familiar with the longevity of the particular "green spores" of the following fern species, or can refer me to botanic literature that may treat this specific question:

Osmunda
Onoclea sensibilis
Botrychium sp.
Matteucia struthiopteris

Has anyone heard of a storage method by which the extremely short-lived spores could survive longer?

I routinely moist-pack seed of ephemerals, but this method will obviously not work with spores.

Thank You,

Kristl

annew:
Sue Olsen, in her new fern book, says that green spores of the species you mention stay viable for about 3 weeks, but that viability can be extended by freezing (she doesn't say how long).
I run the spore exchange for the British Pteridological Society, and we do get spores of Matteuccia sent in, which we have sent out to people, and have had reports of germination, but we haven't had feedback as to whether the sporelings turned out to be true or contamination of some kind. The society only sends out Osmunda spores fresh as they ripen.

Kristl Walek:
Anne,
Thank you. I had considered freezing (which I routinely do with all seed and spores), but had run into literature that suggested that Osmunda regalis remained viable for a few days, which made me pause, realizing that I could not collect, clean and have the spores in the mail to my customers in various places in the world before the spore would be dead. This made me decide to concentrate on other species whose spore might have a slightly longer life--therefore my question. I have not to date carried "green spore" in my list, but wanted to challenge myself.

Related to the issue of spore longevity---I also assume there is an ideal point of ripeness with green spore??????

On another point, spore of  Asplenium rhizophyllum continues to elude me---have collected over a number of years, and at different phases of development only to always end up with chaff only. I have my own theories about why this might be, but would like to hear from you or anyone else who might have had any direct experience with successfully collecting spore of this species.

Kristl
Gardens North Seed

annew:
I've never had a plant to collect spores from! We do get spores sometimes, and I have germinated them and grown them on to weaning stage but lost them at this point. I don't remember them being especially chaffy.
While trying to find things out for you, I was surprised to learn that Onoclea and Matteuccia spores are shed in midwinter. The fertile fronds look completely dead by then. Optimum ripeness for green spores can be taken as the time when they are naturally shed, I would think.

Kristl Walek:

While trying to find things out for you, I was surprised to learn that Onoclea and Matteuccia spores are shed in midwinter.
Anne,
It's interesting you should mention the Onoclea and Matteuccia---because I gathered are few pieces of these two just yesterday, to see what state the spores might be in---and was amazed to actually find what I believe are spores pour out of the totally green, tight, unopened receptacles. My intention is to keep gathering them a few weeks apart from now on, taking notes of dates and ripeness. I also intend to test each batch and to see which stage of ripeness might produce healthy babes...

Oh I do love this stuff!!!!!!!!

Kristl

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