Ferns, Moss & Lichen...

I think ferns, moss and lichen are super cool and I know there must be all sorts of interesting things to learn about them. Does anyone have recommendations of books or guides that would be informative and interesting to learn a little about them? Thanks.

Toe Cozy said:

Does anyone have recommendations of books or guides that would be informative and interesting to learn a little about them? Thanks.

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lichens: Ralph Pope recently wrote a great guidebook called "Lichens above Treeline" which covers a few dozen species in alpine areas of New England.

Ferns: I haven't looked at it myself but there's a new edition of Peterson's Guide to ferns which was written by someone local to New England.

Dunno about mosses / clubmosses; I generally give up on those. The genus Sphagnum is inscrutable and even the state ecologists go to a specialist on sphagnum species. But you could try Arthur Haines's website (google him) which I think has a key that covers them.

Hey... don't neglect the lowly liverwort!!

Toe Cozy said:

I think ferns, moss and lichen are super cool ....

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Me too!

I'll have to check out the Peterson's book - in general I like the Peterson guides a lot because they draw little arrows to the features of a species that help to distinguish it from other species.

Ferns and mosses have interesting life cycles. There is the gametophyte and the sporophyte phases of the life cycle. I never figured out which phase was which.

The Peterson Field Guide to Ferns is excellent. It covers ferns as well as clubmosses, horsetails, spikemosses and quillworts, and also has essays on life cycle and other topics, even gardening with ferns. But I was sometimes frustrated in using the keys and illustrations to make positive identification.
I found a neat little guide that solves that problem: Fern Finder, by Anne C. and Barbara G. Hallowell (Nature Study Guild Publishers, PO Box 10489, Rochester, N.Y. 14610, www. naturestudy. com). I got mine from Amazon.
It's absolutely idiot-proof, and its small size makes it easier to take into the field.

McGraw-Hill publishes a series called "How to Know The ...." which are incredibly detailed keys for identification. I have the volumes on Lichens and also Mosses and Liverworts, but, as an amateur, find them much too difficult to use.

Thanks for the various suggestions. Let the learning begin!!!