Research Catalog

Title

A natural history of ferns / Robbin C. Moran.

Author

Moran, Robbin Craig, 1956-

Publication

Portland : Timber Press, 2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

301 pages : illustrations (some color), maps; 24 cm

Summary

"In A Natural History of Ferns, Robbin Moran, curator of ferns at the New York Botanical Garden, takes an entertaining and informative look at why ferns and their relatives are unique among plants." "A Natural History of Ferns provides just what is needed for those who wish to grow ferns or observe them in their habitats with understanding and appreciation. It is a book for those who would like to know more about the curious ferns."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

• Ferns

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 276-286) and index.

Contents

Foreword / Oliver Sacks -- 1. In search of the fern seed -- 2. Spore shooting -- 3. Sporadic results -- 4. The asexual revolution -- 5. Reproduction by buds -- 6. Hybridization and polyploidy -- 7. The falsely famed fern allies -- 8. The fern fraternity -- 9. Genres of genera -- 10. At the movies -- 11. Giants of the Carboniferous -- 12. A horsetail's tale? -- 13. Hangers-on from the Mesozoic -- 14. The fern spike -- 15. How old are ferns? -- 16. The potato fern -- 17. How ferns become trees -- 18. Iridescent ferns and their shady behavior -- 19. Leaf scales and water uptake -- 20. Some quirks of quillworts -- 21. Bracken, the poisoner -- 22. Spira mirabilis -- 23. Robinson Crusoe's ferns -- 24. Sino-American relations -- 25. Ferns of the lost world -- 26. Ferns, flashlights, and tertiary forests -- 27. Tropical diversity -- 28. Serpent's-tongue tea -- 29. The molesting Salvinia -- 30. Little nitrogen factories -- 31. Nardoo -- 32. Pteridomania -- 33. The vegetable lamb of Tartary.

ISBN

0881926671 (hardback)

LCCN

• 2004001299
• R3-459937

OCLC

• 54280177
• ocm54280177
• SCSB-5093537

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries