A natural history of ferns

Book

A natural history of ferns / Robbin C. Moran.

Moran, Robbin Craig, 1956- (Author).

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."--Jacket.

"An entertaining and informative look at why ferns and their relatives are unique among plants. Ferns live in habitats from the tropics to the polar latitudes, and unlike seed plants, which endow each seed with the resources to help their offspring, ferns reproduce by minute spores. There are floating ferns, ferns which climb or live on trees and ferns which are trees. There are poisonous ferns, iridescent ferns and resurrection ferns which survive desert heat and drought. The relationship of ferns and people are equally varied. Moran sheds light on Robinson Crusoe's ferns, the role of ferns in movies and how ferns get their names."--NHBS Environment Bookstore.

Record details

ISBN: 0881926671
ISBN: 9780881926675
Physical Description: 301 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm
Publisher: Portland : Timber Press, 2004.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 276-286) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Life Cycle of Ferns -- In Search of the Fern Seed -- Spore Shooting -- Sporadic Results -- The Asexual Revolution -- Reproduction by Buds -- Hybridization and Polyploidy -- Classification of Ferns -- The Falsely Famed Fern Allies -- The Fern Fraternity -- Genres of Genera -- At the Movies -- Fern Fossils -- Giants of the Carboniferous -- A Horsetail's Tale? -- Hangers-on from the Mesozoic -- The Fern Spike -- How Old Are Ferns? -- Adaptations by Ferns -- The Potato Fern -- How Ferns Become Trees -- Iridescent Ferns and Their Shady Behavior -- Leaf Scales and Water Uptake -- Some Quirks of Quillworts -- Bracken, the Poisoner -- Spira Mirabilis -- Fern Geography -- Robinson Crusoe's Ferns -- Sino-American Relations -- Ferns of the Lost World -- Ferns, Flashlights, and Tertiary Forests -- Tropical Diversity -- Ferns and People -- Serpent's-Tongue Tea -- The Molesting Salvinia -- Little Nitrogen Factories -- Nardoo -- Pteridomania -- The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary.