In our recent RSPB magazine, Natures Home, it stated that 16,000 species have been found on RSPB reserves across the UK. It then breaks it down to the top 10 reserves and also the reserve with the most species of a certain taxonomic group (birds, dragonflies etc.). Lake Vyrnwy turns out to be the RSPB reserve with the most ferns, with 22 species, which I immediately saw as a challenge!
Given my limited knowledge of ferns I thought it would be a good summer/autumn project to learn how to identify ferns while at the same time trying to find as many of the 22 species as I could. There are only 64 species found in the UK with many of these being fairly distinct which meant I could get off to a quick start without too much head scratching.
Probably the easiest species, which I would suspect the majority of you reading this will have already seen, is bracken. To be honest it hadn’t crossed my mind that it was a fern but having now studied all ferns it quite clearly exhibits fern characteristics.
Wall rue (left) and maidenhair spleenwort (right) on office wall - by Gavin Chambers
Old mortared walls are a good place to look for ferns with a few limestone species liking the lime mortar. Around the shop/office I found maidenhair spleenwort, wall rue, and hart’s tongue. The local graveyard wall has in the past been known for its ferns and from what I have found it still is, with some nice species such as: rustyback, black spleenwort and brittle bladder fern (my latest find). Another rocky species, though not requiring limestone, is the parsley fern which as its name suggests looks a little bit like parsley.
Parsley fern likes rocky screes - by Gavin Chambers
Identification gets a little trickier when looking at woodland species, especially the ‘shuttlecock-shaped’ species. So far I have identified male, lady, broad-buckler and lemon-scented fern along with the scaly male fern, but this is split into three species which I am yet to fully understand. Other woodland species found are beech, oak and hard fern as well as common polypody which is often found growing on tree branches and trunks.
Lemon-scented fern which has a citrus smell when young - by Gavin Chambers
Perhaps the trickiest species that I have found is the wilson’s filmy fern which is one of the smallest ferns and grows over damp rock, often in the splash zone of running water. Fortunately I had a rough idea where it had been found and after a couple of visits to the area found three rock faces which had it growing. It wasn’t at its best given the recent drought but it was good to see it was still present.
Wilson's filmy fern, curled up due to dryness - by Gavin Chambers
So I have currently found 18 of the 22 species on the reserve in around 2 months of searching. Two of the four remaining ferns are tricky to separate and will require more studying and a third species, the narrow-buckler fern, I may have found but it hasn’t completely unfurled yet so will have to go back for another look.
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Great blog Gavin!