The Polystichum Homepage

Welcome to the website for the hollyferns, members of the fern genus Polystichum and allies.
This website is maintained for the use of hollyfern enthusiasts and scholars
throughout the world by Dave Barrington at the University of Vermont in the United States.

Polystichum Homepage

Portrait of the Genus

Taxonomy

Species List

Diversity Map

Interactive Keys

Phylogeny

Cytology (PDF)

Barrington Web Page
(with publications)

Morphological Characters

Morphological Analysis

Lab Protocols

This is a new version of our world-diversity analysis, based on our list of candidate species of Polystichum. It remains a work in progress. All species included in the map are argued to be species in one or more recent floristic or systematic treatments of the genus (these citations are listed on the species list). Warning: species concept differs regionally, so numbers are not all trustworthy. In the map below, the hypothesized centers of endemism are open red ovals, with their numbers of endemic species in blue nearby. The shaded oval screens with red numbers represent species sets shared between centers of endemism. This map is based on 306 of the 343 species on the current species list. (The remainder grow outside centers of endemism or do not have sufficient distribution information.) An earlier version of this map in a more densely illustrated and annotated form was presented as a poster at the Polystichum minisymposium at Kew Gardens in November of 2005. PDF of Kew Poster.

Please be in touch with me with your questions about and insights into the holly ferns -