New Fern Discovery!
Tall Beech Ferns
In the last news email I mentioned the Tall Beech Fern (Phegopteris excelsior), which had been documented a few years ago as present in VT, NY and Canada. It has since also been found in ME, and it was suspected to be around our area as well, based on an historical record. Randy has been keeping an eye out for it, and this past week we visited one of our favorite fern places that has lots of Narrow Beech Ferns (Phegopteris connectilis). With some searching, we found some really tall Beech Ferns which also had slightly different blades that we thought might fit the description in the article by Art Gilman (Tall Beech Fern. A new beech fern in New England, New York and Canada, January 2020). This photo is one of a few we took on site to document the size and shape of the ferns we were seeing. These were not the tallest, but they stand out better against the dirt road background. I also have photos of the samples we pressed, but thought a photo of them at full extension was the most helpful.
The taller Narrow Beech Ferns I have been measuring at different sites for the past couple days tend to have stems (stipes) at most almost 10" long, with 9" or less the normal size. The tallest Tall Beech Fern we measured at the site was over 24" from tip of the blade to the bottom of the stipe, and the stipe alone was about 15.5" long. The Tall Beech, besides being much taller, do not have the basal pinnae reflexing back like an upside down V. A key measurement used by the NHESP (Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program) botanist, who came out to the site the next day to take some samples, is that the length of the bottom pinnae should be 4.5 to 5x as long as the width of the bottom pinnae at their widest point. That is probably more technical than most of you want to get, but it could be helpful. We did find some ferns that were pretty tall but had basal pinnae that were too wide (more like the Broad Beech bottom pinnae, although that is not the other fern that hybridizes with Narrow Beech to create Tall Beech).
We did get confirmation that these are Tall Beech, based on the photos we submitted and the sampling by the NHESP botanist. It will still probably take a bit more time to get the final confirmation, but at this point it is believed to be the first present day record for Franklin County! We are very excited and pleased. It is always fun to find something new!
Keep an eye out for the Tall Beech Fern and let us know if you find any. We would love to see more!
9/1/24
