A Natural History of Ferns [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Robbin C. Moran (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2004

A Natural History of Ferns is an entertaining and informative look at why ferns and their relatives are unique among plants. Ferns live in habitats from the tropics to 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 that climb or live on trees, and ferns that are trees. There are poisonous ferns, iridescent ferns, and resurrection ferns that survive desert heat and drought. The relations 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. A Natural History of Ferns provides just what is needed for those who wish to grow ferns or observe them in their habitats with greater understanding and appreciation.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

From the curator of ferns at the New York Botanical Garden comes a meticulously researched, soundly organized, and entertainingly written treatise on the biology of one of nature's loveliest--and often most misunderstood--plants. Ferns, for all their cool beauty and exotic allure, are anomalies of the plant world because of their distinctive form of reproduction, by spore rather than seed. Moran examines this and other essential processes in a scholarly manual that sets forth in a single volume the wealth of material usually accessible only through intricate research. As opposed to field guides focusing primarily on identification, this history explains the unique life cycle and explores the evolutionary adaptations that have occurred throughout the species' 340-million-year history. Exhibiting a storyteller's flair, Moran opens each chapter with an engaging vignette or anecdote to instantly engage the reader, thus elevating what could be a pedantic discourse into an enjoyable discussion. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"These masterfully written tales and the solid science behind them make this a terrific book for fern enthusiasts or anyone interested in our natural world."
—Darrel Trout, American Gardener, July/August 2005 (American Gardener )

"Most gardeners suspect that there is something very complex about ferns, but few of us have the chance to delve into their mysteries. Robbin Moran's book makes their magic accessible in all its strange detail."
—Marty Ross, Horticulture, May 2005 (Horticulture )

"The author has presented his topics with a fresh approach, so that even seasoned fern-lovers will see events from new vantage points."
—Barbara Joe Hoshizaki, Pacific Horticulture, Spring 2005 (Pacific Horticulture )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press (October 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881926671
• ISBN-13: 978-0881926675
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,166,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the fern book you've been waiting for, April 19, 2005

By 

Charles E. Nydorf (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Natural History of Ferns (Hardcover)

Robbin C. Moran's "A natural history of ferns" takes as its subject both the ferns and the lycophytes, a group which includes the club mosses as well as Selaginella and Isoetes. He fills us in on the details of fern reproductive strategies, the lastest breakthroughs in how ferns are classified, the fossil history of ferns, some fascinating physiological and structural adaptations of ferns, the surprising patterns of fern geographical distribution and the impact of ferns on human life. He never stints on important and interesting complexities but still succeeds in making everything clear to a reader who has had
first year biology. Mr. Moran has an almost uncanny knack for selecting topics that the reader already wants to know more about(or would be curious about if he had heard even a little about them) and knowing what extra information the reader would like to have. In places it is also a good travel book, good enough to make me nostalgic for the Danish countryside.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Reference Book, January 10, 2007

By 

Engineer "Full Time Mom" (Virginia, US) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Natural History of Ferns (Hardcover)

This book is a great scientific reference book while weaving in the history of how people discovered what we know about ferns. It has wonderful illustrations which are very detailed. It is also an interesting read even if you don't need it for a research paper. It is the most comprehensive book on the topic of ferns which we could find and one of the few which can be used extensively for a botany class.

5.0 out of 5 stars Suffering from pteridomania, June 24, 2009

By 

Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Natural History of Ferns (Hardcover)

Robbin C. Moran looks like the quintessential nerd: bad haircut, huge eyeglasses, boyish look despite being a scholar. Unsurprisingly, he has written a nerd book about - wait for it - ferns!

Thank God for Robbie, I don't necessarily mind ferns. Quite the contrary. In Sweden, we call them "snake plants" (or something to that effect), so I was fascinated by them already as a kid. Still today, I get an uncanny feeling walking in a forest where the ground is covered by ferns. After all, you never now what might lurk below them. Snakes, perhaps? (A clue: mostly mosquitoes!) One of the fern species growing around here has edible roots. Polypodium vulgare, I believe.

Still, a small word of warning might be in order. If you want to read "A Natural History of Ferns", you need to be very enthusiastic about the subject. Moran writes about fern taxonomy and the exact shape of fern buds with that nerdie kind of enthusiasm some people might find very annoying. In other words, you need to be a fern-lover already before you pick up this book, to really appreciate the author's efforts!

Like those ferns, Moran covers a lot of ground in his book. There are basic chapters on fern reproduction, hybrids, taxonomy and evolutionary history. Much of this information was new to me, for instance that lycophytes aren't fern allies, or that horsetails are ferns! I belong to the generation whose field guides were still made according to the old taxonomy.

The most interesting chapters, however, are those who deal with more human-related information. Did you know that Shakespeare mentions ferns in one of his plays? Or that fern "seeds" are supposed to have magical properties, according to some old wives' tale? Apparently, you are supposed to collect them on June 23, so I guess I just blew it. That was yesterday! Moran also mentions a modern Hollywood comedy about ferns, "A New Leaf". He discusses Arthur Conan Doyle's book "The Lost World". The plot of the novel is set on a mysterious hill in South America, known as tepui. Such hills actually exist, and are real havens for scientists interested in ferns. We further learn about an ill-fated expedition to the Australian hinterland, in which delicious but poisonous ferns played a part. And then there's the "Victorian fern craze" (pteridomania) in 19th century England, when English collectors almost drew ferns extinct in some regions. The author also mentions "the molesting salvinia", a dangerous weed that threatened entire regions in Sri Lanka, southern Africa and New Guinea, until scientists discovered a new species of beetle that only consumed salvinias, thus saving humanity from yet another environmental harzard. Sounds like the perfect topic for a Hollywood comedy...

"The Natural History of Ferns" also contain intriguing chapters about cryptid ferns, fern bulbs inhabited by really nasty ants, iridescent ferns that look blue (a photo is included), and the "fern spike", a fossil layer of fern spores which confirm the theory that the dinosaurs went extinct due to a meteorite impact. Moran also discusses the rather curious fact that the fern flora of the *eastern* United States is virtually identical to that of East Asia. He also takes us to the Juan Fernandez Islands, home of 54 fern species, 25 of which are endemic.

The weirdest piece of information in this book is the revelation that scientists who describe a new species have to do it in...Latin. Still today, over 200 years after Carolus Linnaeus. If I ever discover a new species of Polypodium, I guess I would have to keep it to myself! I didn't take those Latin classes in senior high, you see...

In sum, "The Natural History of Ferns" by Robbin C. Moran is exactly what you've been looking for - if you suffer from pteridomania.