New Fern Discovery!

Wherry's Wood Fern

Randy and I spend a lot of time hiking around outdoors. We are always looking for new interesting places, but we go back often to our favorite special places. We go to remember where less common ferns are, observe them through the seasons, and look for new ferns. It is always exciting to find a familiar but uncommon fern in a new place, but even more exciting when we notice an altogether new fern anywhere! That is the reward for continuing to go out and look.

Wherry's Wood Fern (Dryopteris x neowherryi) is a new fern to us, yet we found it in a distant part of a very familiar site. Wherry's Wood Fern is a recognized hybrid between Goldie's Wood Fern and Marginal Wood Fern, both of which are common at this site. The Fiddlehead Forum (Bulletin of the American Fern Society) had a great article on Dryopteris hybrids (July-August 1982). The author of the article lists 3 ways to recognize a hybrid. I love the simplicity (and truth) to his observations, which starts with "1. The plant looks funny. It is not typical of any species, but has characteristics of two blended together..." One of the advantages of being outdoors observing a lot is that ferns that look a bit different may get noticed. Randy noticed that this fern just looked a bit different from the nearby Goldie's, which it closely resembles. After carefully examing the fern, taking notes and photos on its characteristics, and then reading a few sources about hybrids of Goldie's, he determined that it is Wherry's Wood Fern. Go Botany describes it as a rare hybrid known from CT, MA, ME & VT. The same article of the Fiddlehead Forum stated that their habitat was "rich rocky woods or wooded slopes", which was true here.

While I have a number of photos of the fern as a whole, the fronds, pinnae, stipe, scales and sori, I can only use one photo here, so I chose the sori. While Wherry's Wood Fern looks similar in size and shape to Goldie's, it does have a few interesting characteristics that show the blending of Goldie's and Marginal. The easiest to see are the sori. The photo above shows (from left to right) Marginal, Wherry's and Goldie's fertile pinnae with sori. As many of you know, Marginal Wood Fern has sori along the outermost margins of the pinnule, as shown on the left side of the photo. Goldie's sori are arranged right along the midvein of the pinnule, as shown on the right side of the photo. And the sori of the hybrid of these two ferns (in the center of the photo) are centered beautifully between the margin and the midvein.

This may be a deep dive down a rabbit hole for some of you, but finding hybrids can be a wonderful surprise. The better you get at recognizing the local ferns (or other plants), the better chance you have of maybe finding a hybrid. I am hoping to start a little series next on sori (aka fruitdots). There are many beautiful and very different kinds, and can be a real help in identifying different fern species.

A reminder of our last hike of the season, from 1-3 PM at Mt Toby on the Friday after Thanksgiving, November 29th. We are meeting at the parking lot on Reservation Rd in Sunderland. The hike will follow the Robert Frost Trail, and then the Caves Trail. We will be looking at the ferns that remain this time of year, and note some of the trees along the way as well.

Janice

11/11/24

Posted: to PV Fern News on Mon, Nov 11, 2024
Updated: Thu, Nov 21, 2024