Working with Ferns

In the 1970s, Rolla and Alice Tryon of Harvard organized an annual fern conference at Harvard Forest every spring. The mission of the conference was to bring together researchers from across a broad spectrum of biology whose common link was that they either studied ferns per se or utilized ferns in their experiments. Talks ranged from classical pteridological subjects such as taxonomy, paleobotany and morp- logy, to experimental areas such as ecology, physiology, development, genetics, and biochemistry. For the participants, of whom I was lucky to be one, it was an int- lectually exhilarating experience. We all learned new things, and the cross fertili- tion of different subjects and research approaches led to new ideas and a better understanding of ferns as organisms. The present volume, Working with Ferns: Issues and Applications, edited by Helena Fernández, Ashwani Kumar and Maria Angeles Revilla, carries the Harvard Forest Fern Conference philosophy into the twenty-first century. The editors have assembled a truly remarkable array of contributions dealing with fern biology. Starting with researches utilizing Ceratopteris, a fern whose speedy life cycle I discovered during my doctoral research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew more than 40 years ago, and ending with a study of Pteridium aq- linum, a cosmopolitan species taxonomically revised by Professor Rolla Tryon, the papers in Working with Ferns: Issues and Applications offer a look at what is new in pteridology.