Ferns and Lycophytes of the Southern Rocky Mountain Region

Monique A. McHenry and Tom A. Ranker

This LUCID3 interactive key can be used to identify all currently recognized ferns and lycophytes in the Southern Rocky Mountain Region (SRMR), an area with high plant diversity rich in endemic species. This key follows the nomenclature of Flora North America (FNA) using an adapted checklist of ferns and lycophytes documented in the SRMR (Snow, 2004). To form an interactive key to the 84 fern and lycophyte taxa in the SRMR, characters that define the similarities and differences among species were entered into Lucid software (version 2.1). We adapted a key to the families of vascular plants of the SRMR (Brasher and Snow, 2003) to best identify deterministic characters of SRMR ferns and lycophytes. This interactive key and corresponding taxon fact sheets were informed by a literature review (FNA, 2003; Weber and Wittmann, 2001b and b; Spackman et al., 1999; Dorn, 1988; Lellinger, 1985; Mickel,1971; Sporne, 1968; Harrington, 1954 and 1950; Harrington and Durrell, 1950; Parsons, 1911), observations of herbaria specimens (COLO, COCO, GREE) and personal observations during twelve collection trips in Colorado. This information was supplemented by a key to Colorado’s ferns and lycophytes, presented by Tom Ranker at the Colorado Native Plant Society Workshop (2003). The geographic location of specimens by county was obtained from CU Museum Herbarium's Specimen Database of Colorado Vascular Plants, NMBCC Gateway to New Mexico Biodiversity and Atlas of the Vascular Plants of Wyoming. Character states for ferns and lycophytes in the SRMR and descriptions for each character state were compiled (from the texts mentioned above) and added to this key. Characters were then scored for each taxon. Additional information entered into the key included dichotomous keys to subspecies and varieties, images of each taxon, images of important or hard to determine characters, elevation and geographic distributions of each taxon based on geographic boundaries determined by political county boundaries (see Maps 1.1 and 1.2).

TUTORIAL NOTE: This key was designed so that it would merge with a key to the species of all vascular plants for the SRMR (when completed). Therefore, to create a user friendly “flat” key there are no sub-keys associated with the families and genera. To expedite the process of identifying a species without a sub-key, characters unique for a certain family or genus are denoted with the three letter acronym for the family or the genus name preceding the given character. Additional note - family and genus characters were entered based on information from the SRMR, thus, characters found worldwide for a given family or genus but not present in the specimens found in the SRMR were omitted.

PHOTO CREDITS: All images in this key were photographed by Tom Ranker or Monique McHenry.

REFERENCES

Brasher, J. W. and N. Snow.  2003.  “Southern Rocky Mountain Interactive Flora (SRMIF). Phase I:  Key to Families.”  Greeley: University of Northern Colorado.

(http://asstudents.unco.edu/students/lucid/).

COLO (CU Boulder Herbarium).  2004 April 1 onwards.  Specimen Database of Colorado Vascular Plants. 

(http://cumuseum.colorado.edu/Research/Botany/Databases/search.php)  Boulder, CO.

Dorn, R.D.  1988.  Vascular Plants of Wyoming.  Cheyenne, WY: Mountain West Publishing.

FNA (Flora of North America Editorial Committee).  1993.  Flora of North America North of Mexico. Vol. 2. New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press.      

Harrington, H.D.  1950.  Colorado Fern and Fern Allies.  Fort Collins: Colorado Agricultural Research Foundation.

Harrington, H.D.  1954.  Manual of the Plants of Colorado.  Denver, CO: Sage Books.

Harrington, H. D. and L.W. Durrell.  1950.  Colorado Ferns.  Fort Collins, CO: Colorado Agricultural Research Foundation.

INRAM. 2005a. The INRAM Biodiversity Division Web Site. The Institute of Natural Resource Analysis and Management. Albuquerqe, NM.

 Available http://biodiversity.inram.org. (Accessed: 1 May 2005).


INRAM. 2005b. The INRAM Gateway to New Mexico Biodiversity [web application]. Version 1.0. The Institute of Natural Resource Analysis and Management.

 Albuquerque, NM.  Available http://biodiversity.inram.org. (Accessed: 1 May 2005).

Lellinger, D. B.  1985.  A Field Manual of the Ferns & Fern-Allies of the United States & Canada. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press.

Mickel, J. T.  1979.  How to know the Ferns and Fern Allies. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C Brown Company Publishers.

Parsons, Frances Theodora. 1911.  How to Know the Ferns.  New York: Charles Scribner’s & Sons.

Ranker, Tom.  2004.  “Colorado Ferns and Lycophytes”. Colorado Native Plant Society Workshop.  Boulder CO, 14 April 2004.

Snow, N., J. W. Brasher.  2004.  Provisional Checklist of Vascular Plants for the Southern Rocky Mountain Interactive Flora (SRMIF).

(http://www.unco.edu/biology/SRMIF/SRMIFChecklistFeb04.pdf).  University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO.

Spackman, S., W. Jennings, J. Coles, C. Dawson, M. Minton, A. Kratz, C. Spurrier.  1999 (on-line version).  Colorado Rare Plant Field Guide. 

Prepared for the Bureau of Land Management, U. S. Forest Service, and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program.  Fort Collins, CO.  (http://www.cnhp.colostate.edu/rareplants/cover.html)

Sporne. K.R.  1968.  The Morphology of Ferns.  London, UK: Hutchinson University Library Press.      

Tryon, R.M. and A.F. Tryon.  1982.  Ferns and Allied Plants, with Special Reference to Tropical America. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Weber, W. A. and R. C. Wittmann.  2001a.  Colorado Flora: Eastern Slope. Third Edition. Niwot, CO: Univ. Press of Colorado.

Weber, W. A. and R. C. Wittmann.  2001b.  Colorado Flora: Western Slope. Third Edition. Niwot, CO: Univ. Press of Colorado.