Tree Ferns

359 Pages·2004·86.633 MB·English

by  Mark F. Large, John E. Braggins

Tree Ferns
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Tree Ferns
s
Mark F. Large
&
John E. Braggins
Timber Press
Portland · Cambridge
Copyright © 2004 by Mark F. Large and John E. Braggins
All rights reserved.
Published in 2004 by
Timber Press, Inc. Timber Press
The Haseltine Building 2 Station Road
133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450 Swavesey
Portland, Oregon 97204-3527, U.S.A. Cambridge CB4 5QJ, U.K.
www.timberpress.com
Printed in China
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Large, M. F.
Tree ferns / Mark F. Large, John E. Braggins.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-88192-630-2 (hardcover)
1. Ferns. I. Braggins, J. E. II. Title.
QK522 .L37 2004
587'.3—dc22
2003016919
A catalog record for this book is also available from the British Library.
To my parents, O. V. and F. E. Large
–M.F.L.
s
Contents
Forewordby David J. Mabberley 9
Preface 11
Acknowledgments 12
Chapter 1. Introduction 15
The Tree Fern Habit 15
Distribution 24
Evolution 25
Conservation 28
Ethnobotany 29
Chapter 2. Cultivation and Propagation 34
Temperature 35
Humidity, Soils, and Moisture 36
Fertilizers and Nutrition 37
Light 37
Vegetative Propagation 38
Propagation from Spores 39
Diseases and Pests 42
Landscaping 45
Chapter 3. The Tree Ferns 47
Families 49
Cyatheaceae 52
Dicksoniaceae 55
Athyriaceae 56
Blechnaceae 56
Marattiaceae 57
Osmundaceae 58
Thelypteridaceae 58
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Hybrids 58
Genera and Species 59
Key to Tree Ferns 59
Calochlaena 60
Cibotium 63
Cnemidaria 69
Culcita 79
Cyathea 81
Cystodium 280
Dicksonia 282
Leptopteris 295
Lophosoria 297
Osmunda 299
Sadleria 301
Thyrsopteris 305
Todea 307
Appendix 1. Tree Ferns That Require Further Study 309
Appendix 2. Tree Ferns by Geographic Region 313
Appendix 3. Tree Ferns for Gardens 323
Conversion Tables 325
Glossary 326
Bibliography 332
Index 339
Gallery of Tree Ferns 161–220
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Foreword
For those people growing up in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemi-
sphere, tree ferns, like palms, cycads, and epiphytic orchids, are quintessen-
tially exotic: plants of botanical gardens and specialized collections. Seeing
tree ferns in situ for the first time, as I did as an impressionable student on a
university expedition to Kenya, is an unforgettable experience. In a montane
forest with the calls of turacos, the whelps of monkeys, the lofty canopy of
flowering trees and lianas down to the ground cover of colorful Acanthaceae
in the clearings—all the trappings of the modern tropical forest—the tree
fern strikes an ancient note, a successful survivor from distant times.
In New Caledonia the tree ferns bear some of the most primitive of liv-
ing ferns as epiphytes, a relationship perhaps of the greatest antiquity. Yet the
pachycaul tree fern structure is beautifully adapted to rapid colonization of
clearings in modern forests, and to the harsh environments above tree line in
New Guinea and on the cinders of Hawaiian volcanoes. Tree ferns are still
rapidly evolving, yet as a group they have survived the changes that paved
the way from dinosaurs to the modern fauna of mammals, birds, and insects,
sointricatelycoevolvedwiththeangiosperms.Tostudyandtogrowtreeferns
is thus to associate with some of the most remarkable of living things.
Mark Large and John Braggins have produced a book to do justice to
tree ferns: there is nothing else like it. A guide to all the known tree ferns is a
must for fern gardener and pteridologist alike, yet no one has ever before
attempted such a thing. Living in New Zealand, where tree ferns are familiar
in both forest and garden, Mark long had in mind tackling such a project, but
it was only in 1994, when working as a Royal Society postdoctoral fellow in
my laboratory in Oxford, did the spur come. Triggered by questions con-
cerning Dicksonia arborescens, a tree fern of St. Helena, the project was
begun. Once he was back in New Zealand, Mark studied the genus, using
both morphological and molecular techniques.
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