FERN PLANTS GALLERY PAGES
Site Map for pages with photo content (o)
Fern Culture
from Sections 1-10 of Ferns and Fern Culture by J. Birkenhead, F.R.H.S.
Published by John Heywood in Manchester in
May, 1892 with
Rules for Fern Culture
followed by
Sections
1 Modes of Growth
2 Compost
3 Compost for various Genera, growing in pots, pans or baskets
4 Various Habits of Ferns
5 Various Modes of Cultivation
6 Light
7 Temperature
8 Ferns in Dwelling-Houses
9 Propagation (in Use in Brackish Water in Coastal District Page)
10 Selection of Ferns
with
British Ferns and their Allies comprising the Ferns, Club-mosses, Pepperworts and Horsetails by Thomas Moore, F.L.S, F.H.S., Etc. London George Routledge and Sons, Broadway, Ludgate Hill. Hardcover published in 1861 provides details on British Ferns
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TYPE OF FERN TO GROW
....Aquatic
....Boston/ Fishbone/
Lace/ Sword
....Cloak/Lip/Hand
....Filmy and Crepe
....Lacy Ground
(o)Lady
....Maidenhair
(o)Miscellaneous
(o)Primitive/ Oddities
....Scrambling/ Umbrella/ Coral/ Pouch
....Selaginellas
(o)Shield/ Buckler/ Holly
....Squirrel/ Rabbit/ Hare's Foot
....Staghorn/ Elkhorn/ Epiphyte
....Tassel, Clubmoss
....The Brakes
....The Polypodies
(o)The Spleenworts
....The Tree Ferns
....Water/ Hard/ Rasp/ Chain
Where to see
UNITED STATES
San Antonio Botanical Garden.
San Diego Botanic Garden.
San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum.
Sarah P. Duke Gardens.
Tyringham Cobble.
UNC at Charlotte Botanical Gardens.
University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley.
USCS Arboretum.
Whitehall Historic Home and Garden.
Wild Gardens of Acadia.
Zilker Botanical Garden.
WALES
Aberglasney Gardens.
Dewstow Gardens.
Dyffryn Gardens.
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USE OF FERN
(o)Cold-hardy
(o)From Lime-hating Soil
(o)From Limestone Soil
(o)Hanging Basket
(o)Indoor Decoration
(o)Outdoor Pot
(o)Terrariums
(o)Wet Soils
(o)Ground Cover
(o)Pendulous Fronds
Where to see
AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Botanic Garden.
Brisbane Botanic Garden.
Mount Lofty Botanic Garden.
Royal Botanic Garden, Melbourne.
Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney.
CANADA
Le Jardin Botanique de Montreal.
Les Jardins de Metis.
Van Dusen Botanical Garden.
ENGLAND
Biddulph Grange Garden.
Brodsworth Hall and Gardens.
Cambridge University Botanic Gardens.
Chelsea Physic Garden.
Harlow Carr Botanic Gardens.
RHS Garden Wisley.
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.
Savill Gardens.
Sizergh Castle and Garden.
Southport Botanic Gardens.
Tatton Park.
Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens.
University of Oxford Botanic Garden.
FRANCE
Jardin Botanique de Lyon.
Parc Phoenix-Nice.
GERMANY
Arktisch-Alpiner Garten.
Botanischer Garten und Museum.
Flora und Botanischer Garten Koln.
IRELAND
Caher Bridge Garden.
Kells Bay Gardens.
NETHERLANDS
Hortus Botanicus Leiden.
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SPORE COLOUR
Spore
BED PICTURES
Garden
Where to see
NEW ZEALAND
Franz Fernery at the Auckland Domain Park.
Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust Garden.
Pukekura Park.
SCOTLAND
Arduaine Garden.
Ascog Hall Gardens and Victorian Fernery.
Attadale Gardens.
Benmore Botanic Garden.
Glasgow Botanic Garden.
Inverewe Garden and Estate.
Linn Botanic Gardens.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
UNITED STATES
Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Balboa Park.
Barnes Foundation Arboretum.
Bartholomew's Cobble.
Bellevue Botanical Garden.
Berkshire Botanical Garden.
Bloedal Reserve.
Bok Tower Gardens.
Botanical Gardens at Asheville.
Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Cailfornia State Unversity at Sacramento.
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.
Chanticleer.
Chicago Botanic Garden.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.
Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden.
Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden.
Denver Botanic Gardens.
Elandan Gardens.
Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden.
Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden.
Fern Canyon.
Ferndell Canyon in Griffith Park.
Fort Worth Botanic Garden.
Frelinghuysen Arboretum.
Garden in the Woods.
Garvan Woodland Gardens.
Ganna Walska Lotusland.
Georgeson Botanical Garden.
Georgia Perimeter College Botanical Gardens
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All Hardy Fern Foundation members have unlimited access to our spore exchange and can choose from a wide variety of ferns. Our resource pages include publications and books about ferns as well as useful websites.
A Natural History of Britain's Ferns by Christopher N. Page. Published by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd in 1988. ISBN 0 00 219382 5 (limpback edition) provides details of Coastal, Man-made Landscapes, Woodland, Wetland, Grassland and Rock Outcrops, Heath and Moorland, Lower Mountain Habitats, Upper Mountain Habitats and Atlantic Fringe Ferns.
I have provided a brief summary in the Ferns in Coastal District with associated plants and Ferns for Man-Made Landscapes with associated plants pages and provided you with the Chapter number for the others, since the information within this book is so comprehensive, that it would need to be completely copied to be of most use.
Tree Ferns by Mark F. Large & John E. Braggins. Published by Timber Press in 2004. ISBN 978-1-60469-176-4 is a scientifically accurate book dealing with Tree Fern species cultivated in the United States and the Pacific, but little known and rare tree ferns are also included.
The Observer's Book of Ferns, revised by Francis Rose, previous editions compiled by W.J.Stokoe. Published by Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd in 1965 provides a comprehensive guide to 45 British species of Ferns. It provides details of habitat and how to use those ferns.
The Plant Lover's Guide to Ferns by Richard Steffen & Sue Olsen. Published in 2015 by Timber Press, Inc. ISBN 978-1-60469-
474-1. It provides details on designing with ferns and details on 140 ferns for the garden in the USA.
Success with Indoor Ferns, edited by Lesley Young. Reprinted 1998. ISBN 1 85391 554 8. It details the care of indoor ferns with their position, choice and fern care.
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See
Ferns in Britain and Ireland
or the
British Pteridological Society
for further details and photos.
Mail Order UK Fern Nursery
Shady Plants has ferns for
Vertical Fern Gardens and Companion Plants for growing with Ferns.
Where to see
UNITED STATES
Harry P. Leu Gardens.
Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.
Holden Arboretum.
Honolulu Botanical Gardens.
Huntington Botanical Gardens.
Huntsville-Madison County Botanical Garden.
Inniswood Metro Gardens.
Kruckeberg Botanic Garden.
Lakewold Gardens.
Leach Botanical Garden.
Leonard J. Buck Garden.
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.
Longwood Gardens.
Lyndhurst Gardens.
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.
Matthaei Botanical Gardens.
Memphis Botanic Garden.
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.
Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens.
Michigan State University.
Missouri Botanical Garden.
Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania.
Mount Pisgah Arboretum.
Mt. Cuba Center.
National Tropical Botanical Garden.
New Jersey State Botanical Garden at Skyland.
New York Botanical Garden.
Norfolk Botanical Garden.
North Carolina Botanical Garden.
Olbrich Botanical Garden.
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.
Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park.
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.
Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden.
Rotary Gardens.
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USE OF FERN - Ferns for Man-Made Landscapes (South-western Hedgebanks, Hedgerows and Ditches, Walls and Stonework, Water Mills and Wells, Lime Kilns and abandoned Lime-Workings, Pit heaps and Shale Bings, Canals, Railways and Their Environs in the UK)
"Since man first entered the scene, he has wrought change to the vegetation and the landscapes around him. Some of these landscapes created have eventually found themselves become suitable for a limited recolonisation by appropriate native ferns. The most distinctive of these are in sites of abandoned industrial activity or with habitats resulting from the construction of various massive communication systems. Ferns have succeeded in these sites because they often combine several important features for pteridophyte success, especially reduced plant competition, availability of unusual (and especially mineral-rich) substrates, and relative freedom from grazing.
South-western Hedgebanks
- Steep 'hedgebanks' or 'lanebanks' along a myriad of minor roads and trackways, and similar structures forming field divisions, are a feature of the rural landscape of much of the south-west of England, Channel Islands and southern Ireland. Often 200-300 cms in height, such hedgebanks are usually massive, winding structures built of earth and stone, and capped by a hedge. Although man-made, their exposed surfaces support the fern component as well as others. They occur in regions which enjoy a mild though damp and windy climate, often with appreciable summer sun and sometimes winter snow, but in which there is a considerable maritime influence - this helps buffer the greatest extremes of temperature. For 3 centuries after the 13th, the bank was traditionally capped by turves and left as grass, or, more usually, planted with a quickset hedge of Oak, Ash or Hazel. Polypodium is a particularly distinctive genus of usually the tops of banks in exposed sites, and either Common Polypody (Polypodium vulgare) or low-growing plants of Western Polypody (Polypodium interjectum), may occur in extensive windswept patches. Polypodium can be accompanied by low-growing flowering plants of Stonecrop (Sedum) and Thyme (Thymus pracox). On the sides of these same banks, small plants of Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum) occupy only dark, narrow recesses, and sometimes stunted plants of Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes subsp. quadrivalens) are also present. There may also be scattered and usually stunted specimens of Common Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas), Soft Shield-fern (Polystichum setiferum), Hart's Tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium) and, where pockets of more acidic humus accumulate, occasional Golden-scaled Male-fern (Dryopteris affinis subsp. borreri), Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina) or Broad Buckler-fern (Dryopteris dilatata) in their sheltered lees. On the tops of windswept moors such as Bodmin Moor, the low, stony banks typically also have many plants of Hard Fern (Blechnum spicant) along their bases.
In the more sheltered situations like the low-altitude hedgebanks along tracks, paths, lanes, bridle-ways and roads descending along narrow coombes to the sea, there are Hart's-tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium) and Soft Shield-fern (Polystichum setiferum). Mostly in south Devon, Hard Shield-fern (Polystichum aculeatum) and Lowland Hybrid Shield-fern (Polystichum x bicknellii) are sometimes present, mainly on soil slopes at the bases of banks. On very many sheltered hedgebanks, Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum) remains an abundant species, especially in sites where there is not dense tree overgrowth, and occurs both in the deep interstices of the rock wall matrices and on accumulations of earth at the foot of the banks, especially on their sunnier aspects. Southern Polypody (Polypodium australe) may be present on hedgebanks where base-yielding rocks have been incorporated, such as in the vicinity of the Devonshire limestones and in many places in southern Ireland.
- Asplenium onopteris is confined to lanebank sites only in southern Ireland, with its finely dissected frond form. In other lanebanks at low altitude, especially in south-west England and the Channel Islands, Asplenium adiantum-nigrum may be joined by Lanceolate Spleenwort (Asplenium billotii), which grows deeply recessed between boulders, with only the tips of its fronds emerging. Asplenium hybrids in these lanebank sites are Guernsey Spleenwort (Asplenium x sarniense), Confluent Maidenhair Spleenwort (x Asplenium confluens), Jackson's Fern (x Asplenium jacksonii) and Guernsey Fern (x Asplenophyllitis microdon). Western Polypody (Polypodium interjectum) occurs in sheltered lanebank habitats in south-west England and southern Ireland. Common Polypody (Polypodium vulgare) is more typical of inland acidic sites in Devon and Cornwall. On permanently moist, mainly south-facing lanebanks, where there is slight regular erosion of soft clay surfaces, the Annual Fern (Anogramma leptophylla) occurs in the Channel Islands.
- Man's regular cutting of the verge sides helps to maintain the fern communities. Species associated with ferns include Ivy (Hedera helix), Wall Pennywort (Umbelicus rupestris), Red Campion (Silene dioica), Lesser Celandine (Ranuculus ficaria), Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum), Wood Sage (Teucrium scorodonia), Slender False-Brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum) and Cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata). Cuckoo-pint (Arum maculatum) sometimes occurs along the bottoms of fern-rich hedgebanks whilst hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) in sheltered sites and Gorse (Ulex europaeus) in more exposed ones are now amongst the most frequent shrubs capping their tops.
Hedgerows and Ditches
Hedgerows, often with ditches beside them, form a conspicuous feature of the landscapes of much of rural, and especially lowland, Britain and Ireland. Indeed, they are a feature of most parts of western Europe, wherever the climate is particularly suitable for the growth of pasture grasses and there has been a need to include or exclude browsing stock. After the Enclosure Acts between 1760 and 1830, many fields were enclosed directly from former common grazing land. The general effects of a hedge are to cause windspeed to decrease and become more diffuse in its lee, whilst also providing an aspect of greater shade, ground moisture and longer snow-lie. The ground beneath and immediately around will probably remained relatively undisturbed since the date when the hedge was originally founded. Although hedgerows are seldom the sites of very luxuriant pteridophyte growth, old hedgerows blend together certain features of both ancient woodland, ancient pasture and woodland margin habitats, whilst also occasionally including areas of banking and stone retaining work. Where ditches run parallel to hedges, new habitats which have more affinity in their species with marshes and seepage lines may be brought into close array with the miniature shrubbery of the hedge.
- The woodland element is represented in the hedgerow ferns mainly by a number of larger statured ferns, particularly of the genus Dryopteris. Common Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) is widely spread throughout lowland Britain, especially those of not excessive acidity. Accompanied by Common Golden-scaled Male Fern (Dryopteris affininis subsp. borreri), Broad Buckler-fern (Dryopteris dilatata), Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina) and sometimes by Hard Fern (Blechnum spicant), the latter 2 especially in moister sites and on more shaded aspects. Around the hedgerow, especially on verges and banks can be Common Horsetail (Equisetum arvense). In upland districts, subspecies of Golden-scaled Male Fern and Hard Fern; in sheltered hedgerow sites in valleys, Mountain Fern (Oreopteris limbosperma) and Wood Horsetail (Equisetum sylvaticum) accompany them. In lowland western districts, especially on base-rich clays, the large Robust Golden-scaled Male Fern (Dryopteris affinis subsp. robusta), Soft Shield-fern (Polstichum setiferum) and Hart's Tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium) occurs in hedgerows of moist, sheltered valleys. Where hedgerows and their adjacent ditches occur in valley sites of sedimentary rocks, dense stands of Great Horsetail (Equisetum temateia) mark sites of emerging seeping, base-rich water over heavy clay substrates.
- The marsh and aquatic element has Marsh Horsetail (Equisetum palustre) and the Water Horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile) within hedgerow ditches.
Marsh Horsetail associated mainly with fairly eutrophic drainage and associates include Water Mints (Mentha sp.), Water forget-me-not (Myosotis spp, mostly Myosotis scorpioides), Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) Yellow Flag (Iris pseudacorus) and scattered rushes (Juncus spp.). Water Horsetail occurs in ditch habitats with Equisetum palustre.
- The pasture element has Adder's-tongue, which benefits from shade, shelter, protection from grazing and freedom from ploughing.
- Associated herbaceous species noted with many ferns include Garlic Mustard (Allaria petiolata), Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale), Hedge Parsley (Torilis japonica), Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria), Buttercups (Ranunculus acris and Ranunculus bulbosus), Wood Anemone (Anemone nemerosa), Bluebell (Hyacintoides non-scriptus), Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea), Wild Arum (Arum maculatum), Greater Stictwort (Stellaria holostea), Red and White Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum and Lamium album), Goosegrass (Galium aparine), Red Campium (Silene dioica), Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris), Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale agg.), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Lesser Knapweed (Centaurea nigra), Wood Cranesbill (Geranium sylvaticum), Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum), Wood Avens (Geum urbanum), Violets (Viola spp., especially Viola odorata, Viola riviniana and Viola reichenbachiana), Primrose (Primula vulgaris), Cowslip (Primula veris), Bugle (Ajuga reptans) and Hedge Bedstraw (Gallium mollugo).
By roadsides, such hedgerows and their ditches are often fringed with meadow grasses as well as umbellifers such as Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), Rough Chervil (Chaerophyllum temulentum) and Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium).
Walls and Stonework
The field and boundary wall is common in rural landscapes throughout Britain and Ireland, wherever there was availability of local surface stone - some may be to 1,000 years old and traditionally were of ainly drystone (i.e. mortarless) construction (I have constructed one of 480 inches (1200 cms) long and 3 rows high from ruined abbey stones in a garden, so that the client could sit on it as well. Every row must be locked together, otherwise the next row will fall off). Sometimes there are extensive cappings of Poylpodium which can occur along their crests, especially on old walls of the most frequent precipitation.These wall ferns can be grouped into the following 2 general habitat categories:-
- Species predominantly of wall crevices occurring mostly in the mortar courses on the sides of walls, and
- Those species whose main habitats are the flatter aspects of wall tops.
- Wall Sides
Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) on walls from sea level up to 2000 feet (around 61000 cms) elevation and Wall Rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria) at altitudes below 1,200 feet (about 56000 cms). The most luxuriant plants of both are generally confined to the more shaded aspects of walls, although both may occur in very large numbers in a dimunitive form even on exposed aspects, especially in cloudier districts - landward-drift of cold, damp, summer sea-fogs from north-east coast of England and south-east Scotland for example. Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum) occurs in wall mortar, mainly in westerly and south-easterly areas and near coasts. Hart's Tongue Fern (Phyllitis scolopendrium) on highly lime-yielding, rapidly-decaying, mortar walls which are sheltered and more or less permanently damp and shaded. Rusty-back fern (Ceterach officinarum) is most common on lime-rich walls below 600 feet (18000 cms) - it thrives most on exposed and sunny aspects of walls, where plants are tolerant of strong light and sometimes of considerable periods of summer baking and dessication, together with year-round high humidity and a long growing season with mild winter temperatures for this evergreen.
On brick-built retaining walls of sites such as city stairways, surface acidification plus the progress of regular seepage of often less than base-rich water through the brick and mortarwork from the soil behind, can make suitable habitats for the occurence of acid-loving species such as Broad Buckler-fern (Dryopteris dilatata), Common and Golden-scaled Male-ferns (Dryopteris filix-mas and Dryopteris affinis subsp. borreri), Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina) and Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum).
- Wall Tops
Tops of newly-built free-standing walls are usually finished with a capping layer of bricks or larger stones, often laid on end. But when derelict, broken wall tops may expose the mortar of their former courses as well as, in thicker walls (such as those of old castles), surfaces of sometimes extensive infilling rubble and mortar. These wall tops are more directly exposed to both light and rain and they readily accumulate debris to form pockets of rudimentary soils. All the ferns of wall sides also occur on wall tops. The main wall-top fern genus is Polypodium. Common Polypody (Polypodium vulgare) usually colonises acidic wall tops. Western Polypody (Polypodium interjectum) is the most generally abundant wall fern. Southern Polypody (Polypodium australe) occurs on well-broken walls which have exposed extensive old mortar courses. It is the species par excellence of old castles, which have fallen into a state of dereliction; in moss-rich associations.
- Associated with these ferns are sometimes extensive patches of mosses and:- Ivy-leaved Toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis - especially on drier walls), Smooth Hawk's-beard (Crepis capillaris), Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale agg.), Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata), Wall Pennywort (Umbillicus rupestris), Ivy (Hedera helix), Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum), Pellitory-of-the-wall (Parietaria diffusa), Mossy Pearlwort (Sagina procumbens), the Meadow grasses (Poa trvialis and Poa annua), and the mosses Tortula muralis, Tortula tortuosa, Bryum argenteum, Bryum capillare, Hypnum cupressiforme, Mnium hornum, Ctenidium molluscum, Homalothecium sericium, Ceratodon purpureus, Barbula convoluta, Fissidens taxifolius, Fissidens adianthoides, Atrichium undulatum, Encalypta vulgaris, Neckera crispa, Eurynchium confertum, Eurynchium striatum and Rhynchostegia murale.
- Lime mortar - common limes were amongst the first cementitious materials used, from Roman times through a very long period of history, until well into the 1800s. The starting point for the manufacture of common lime cements was always calcium carbonate, CaCo3, usually in the form of natural limestone. Such limestone, when heated, gives rise to calcium oxide or quicklime, CaO, which, when it comes into contact with water, is slaked or hydrated, to form calcium hydroxide, Ca (OH)2, or slaked lime. In the presence of water, calcium hydroxide becomes a cementitious material, for it hardens gradually through progressive evaporation of the water and absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide, CO2, to give calcium carbonate, CaCO3, or common lime. This reaction is primarily a surface phenomenon, which does not always run to completion in the deeper interstices of mortar courses. Such common lime mortar, although used as the primary cementing agent throughout the greater part of British and Irish building-construction history, is not very resistant to water, even after surface carbonisation. Its relatively soft texture and rapid rate of decay made it, however, highly lime-yielding.
Portland cement mortars very widely replaced the use of former common lime mortars from the 1800s in most types of wall construction. Their starting points include the firing not only of natural limestones, but also of clays (which are largely complex aluminium silicates), and their use includes their amalgamation with specific ratios of building sands. The cements produced are more chemically complex, and produce harder, more durable mortars, which include complex oxides, carbonates and silicates of calcium, magnesium and aluminium, including tricalcium silicates, as well as ferric oxide Fe2O3, the hardening reaction taking place slowly over a long period of time, but more evenly throughout the mortar.
Water Mills and Wells
The interiors of stone- or brick-lined wells and the interiors of mill lathes provide local fern habitats.
- Rusty-back Fern (Ceterach officinarum) is present near well mouths and on mortared stonework of mill buildings. Sea Spleenwort (Asplenium marinum) is a member of the wellshaft interior vegetation, near to sea-level and to south-western coasts. In the upper reaches of both wellshafts and mill races, Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) and Wall Rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria) would form an abundant, fringing vegetation, with Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum) present in appropriate districts. Within the darker interiors of both mill races and wellshafts, Hard Shield-fern (Polystichum aculeatum), Male Fern(Dryopteris filix-mas), Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina), and Broad Buckler-fern (Dropteris dilatata) occur in pockets where humus has accumulated. By contrast, shaded mortar, Brittle Bladder-fern (Cystopteris fragilis) is abundant. Hart's Tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium) is associated with both mill race and wellshaft habitats. Wellshaft interiors were cleared regularly each year of their accumulated festooning plant life in many monasteries and abbeys to prevent the water beneath getting tainted or contaminated from this foliage and assocated animal life.
Lime Kilns and Abandoned Lime-workings
Formerly scattered or dumped lime and lime-waste now often considerably base-enriches the surrounding patches of rich grassy turf which have subsequently become established.
- Adder's-tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum) and Moonwort (Botrychium lunaria) may occur in these old quarry bottoms, when most of the local lime-producing enterprises had closed by about 1920.
- Associated with large plants of Cowslip (Primula veris).
Pit Heaps and Shale Bings
The modern, great, grey pit heaps associated with the more mechanised aspects of coal extraction are mostly no longer in active addition and have become derelict during the last century. Very similar shale bings, usually pink in colour, are associated with the paraffin extraction industry and these have become largely disused after the 19th century.
- The main horsetail to colonise the sides of the pit heaps themselves is usually Common Horsetail (Equisetum arvense). This produces thick swards of cone-bearing shoots every April. Beneath the surface, at a depth from about 5 cm (2 inches) down, a densely interwoven mat of rhizomes considerably stabilises the surface, even on a slope of 30-40 degrees. This promotes the eventual vegetation of the slope, unless destroyed by man removing this horsetail before other vegetation can fulfill the same purpose.
- Moonwort (Botrychium lunaria) establishes on flatter and more long-stable tops of disused shale bings of the Forth-Clyde valley of Scotland.
- Clubmosses include Forked Clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum - both this and the Diphasiastrum occur on a north-west facing low ridge of clay with ironstone nodules), Fir Clubmoss (Huperzia selago - oocurs on a low bank of clay containing small pieces of coal) and occasionally Alpine Clubmoss (Diphasiastrum alpinum).
Associated plants with the clubmosses include Birdsfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), Autumnal Hawkbit (Leontodon autumnalis), Hawkweed (Hieraceum sp.), Cat's Ear (Hypochaeris radicata), Common Bent (Agrosis tenuis), Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus), and the mosses Campylopus introflexus, Ceratodon purpureus, Pohlia nutans and Rhacomitrium lanuginosum. The spread of these species may have become possible by the progressive reduction of urban and industrial air pollution in recent decades.
Canals
The original construction of the canals created a whole range of new habitats for plants, and the relative shelter of low-lying canal sections (especially where in cuts), the locally enhanced humidity from the standing as well as sometimes seeping water, and the abundance of brickwork with calcareous mortar courses have created sites particularly suitable for the establishment of a range of ferns.
- Canal Mortar and Woodwork Habitats - Mortar of aqueducts, retaining walls and tunnel mouths is frequently damp, but brightly lit, providing habitats in which Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes subsp. quadrivalens) and Wall Rue (A splenium ruta-muraria) usually succeed. Larger species accompanying them are Hart's Tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium) and occasional Hard Shield-fern (Polystichum aculeatum), less calcilolous Common Male-fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) or even the generally calcifuge Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina). Lady Fern occurs in aqueduct abutments with young plants of Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) in these well-lit, moist, wall mortar habitats. Asplenium ruta-muraria occurs within lock chambers with Asplenium trichomanes and Brittle Bladder-fern (Cystopteris fragilis).
- Canal Corridor Habitats - In the adjacent vegetation around canals, in the areas that can usefully be called the 'canal corridor', other ferns and fern allies occur. Along exposed banks Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) is abundant. Common Horsetail (Equisetum arvense with its pinkish-white, cone-bearing shoots in early April) grows along grassy banks as well as in cindery residue along the edges of towpaths. Both are abundant in both urban and rural areas.
- Common Horsetail grows with Goat's-Beard (Tragopogon pratensis), Greater Knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa), Oxford Ragwort (Senecio squalidus), Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) and many grasses.
- Marsh Horsetail (Equisetum palustre) grows in rural stretches of canals and spreads into adjacent damp meadows with Meadowseet (Filipendula ulmaria), Valerian (Valeriana officinalis), Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre), Wter Avens (Geum rivale) and Gipsywort (Lycopus europaeus).
- Wood Horsetail (Equisetum sylvaticum) occurs in high rainfall areas such as the Caledonian Canal.
- Small stands of Water Horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile) colonise still waters of former passing-bays, along with Water Plantain (Alisma plantago-aquatica), Unbranched-Bur-reed (Sparganium emerseum) and Yellow Flag (Iis pseudacorus).
- Great Horsetail (Equisetum temateia) colonises natural seepage lines of base-rich water along English canal banks.
- Elsewhere in canal corridors larger woodland ferns occur on sheltered flanks of sloping cuts, on grassy banks amongst invading Bramble, Gorse, Elder or developing scrub woodland, or along the courses of old canalside hedges. Broad Buckler-fern (Dryopteris dilatata), with clumps of Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina), Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) and Golden-scaled Male Fern (Dropteris affinis subsp. borreri).
Soft Shield Fern (Polystichum setiferum) and Hart's Tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium) appear on basic clays, whilst in ususually acidic pockets on canal sides Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis) grows.
Railways and their Environs
The success of ferns in the railway corridor is probably due to the shelter and enhanced humidity of some railway habitats, such as those within cuttings. The Great Western Railway, the longest-lived in Britain, built no less than 12,000 bridges and 1,600 stations along about 3,600 miles of track , which eventually included not only main lines, but also over 150 more minor, and mostly rural, branch lines. Today, about 65% of this system still remains in active use with the remainder disused since the mid 1950's or early 1960s. With track lifted plant colonisation has occurred.
- Trackbed Habitats - Until the 1930's tracks were mostly weeded by hand. Thereafter, weedkilling trains became widely adopted and these regularly sprayed the trackbed and a short distance either side of it with herbicidal chemicals. There was abandonment of substantial areas or rural branchlines from weedkilling trains, and so the trackbed became covered in plants.
Common Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) occurs on many railway track ballast including cinder, clinker, hard hornfels rock or granite. Where lines traverse hillsides and there is some natural water seepage Marsh Horsetail (Equisetum palustre) grows particularly in coal-bearing shales. Wood Horsetail (Equisetum sylvaticum) grows in and around the trackbed in parts of Scotland under climates of frequent cloud abd abundant light rain. In high-rainfall districts, Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas), Broad Buckler-fern (Dryopteris dilatata) Common Golden-scaled Male Fern (Dryopteris affinis subsp. borreri) and Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina) grow within the shelter of former cuttings, whilst on embankments Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum), Adder's Tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum) and Moonwort (Botrychium lunaria) have been reported.
- Embankment, Cuttings and Associated Structures - Strips of vegetation of varying width within the fenced perimeter of each line called the 'railway corridor' contain a large number of embankments and cuttings. A high proportion often exceeding 50% of the lineside terrain is thus sloping. The original construction of the railways were usually carefully engineered to re-use the materials quarried from cuttings to construct adjacent embankments. These were free from grazing.
Where embankment tops are edged with stone or mortared brick retaining courses below the ballast fringe, and where shrub or tree growth is absent, ferns such as Wall-Rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria), Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes subsp. quadrivalens) and Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum) may occur.
Embankment sides provide especially well-drained habitats and this is often maintained by regular tipping of spent trackbed ballast, creating scree-like patches with a rubble-like or cindery surface. In such sites, Common Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) forms large colonies.In wetter, western as well as upland sites, Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) and Golden-scaled Male Fern (Dryopteris affinis) also occur in tipped ballast screes, while over embankment sides as a whole, large stands of Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) occur.
In cutting interiors in lowland areas, Common Horsetail, Bracken, Male-fern and Golden-scaled Male-fern as well as Boad Buckler-fern (Dryopteris dilatata) and Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina) are often to be seen.
Where lines cut through more basic rocky strata, Hart's Tongue Fern (Phyllitis scolopendrium) and Soft and Hard Shield Ferns (Polystichum setiferum and Polystichum aculeatum) with Black and Maidenhair Spleenworts (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum and Asplenium trichomanes subsp. quadrivalens).
Where railway cuttings intersect and expose base-rich springlines associated with deep clay soils, Great Horsetail (Equisetum telmateia) may form extensive patches.
In many rocky railway cuttings Western Polypody (Polypodium interjectum) and Common Polypody (Polypodium vulgare are present.
In upland areas, the railway corridor comes more frequently into contact with upland acidic woodland and surrounding moorland vegetation the Common and Golden-scaled Male Ferns (Dryopteris filix-mas and Dryopteris affinis) with Broad Buckler Fern (Dryopteris dilatata) and Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina) occur widely.
- Associates of these ferns on railway embankments and in cuttings:-
On drier embankment sides, there is Coltsfoot (Tussilago farara), Ragwort (Senecio jacobea), Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata), Hardheads (Centaurea nigra), Rosebay Willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium), Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense), Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris), Tufted Vetch (Viccia cracca), Golden-rod (Solidago virgaurea), Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.), Nipplewort (Lapsana communis), Hogweed (Heracleum spondylium), Sorrel (Rumex aceotosa), Wood Sage (Teucrium scorodonia), Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca), and Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea).
Further associates of these ferns on railway embankments and in cuttings, together with the details concerning The Railway Corridor and Adventive Pteridophytes are within Chapter 6.
" from Chapter 6 The Pteridophytes of Man-Made Landscapes of A natural History of Britain's Ferns by Christopher N. Page. Published by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd in 1988. ISBN 0 00 219382 5 (limpback edition).
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