Foroyar / Faroe Islands -

" PLANTS ~ TREES ~ FERNS."

MNH ~ Miniature Sheet !

Ferns are flowerless plants.

Ferns belong to the group of plants that are known as flowerless. There are about 20,000 different kinds of fern and this group is the biggest after the group of flowering plants, which numbers 250,000 different kinds. Most ferns are found in the tropics and thrive best in damp surroundings.

Ferns are considered primitive plants that are closely related to primeval plants. They have neither flowers nor seeds and reproduce with the help of spores which, in some kinds, accumulate in spore clusters on the underside of fronds and are protected by a shield that opens when the spores have matured so that they can spread. In other kinds, the spores are attached to the edges of the fronds that are curled inwards as long as the spores have not matured.

Some kinds have two kinds of frond: a sterile frond and a fertile frond. The fertile fronds of some ferns may have a completely different appearance than the sterile fronds. A fern can produce millions of spores, but few of them become new plants.

Spores have different shapes. They can be kidney-shaped or round, of different colours – light or dark – and these differences are often used to identify them.

Fronds also differ. They may be subdivided into one, two, or more leaflets, or not subdivided at all. An important characteristic of ferns is that they resemble a fiddlehead before they are fully grown due to their special growth conditions.

The Faroese name for fern is 'trøllakampar', which means 'troll's beard' and not 'troll's comb' as is often heard.

There are fifteen kinds of fern in the Faroes. Most of them grow in clefts in rocks where there is moisture and shade, but they can also be found in stony and steep terrain and ravines. The most common Faroese fern is the 'fragile fern' (cystopteris fragilis). 'Black spleenwort' (asplenium adiantum-nigrum) and 'maidenhair spleenwort' (asplenium trichomanes), on the other hand, are very rare and can be found in only one place. A new fern was discovered in 2007 at Norðuroyggjar. This was a 'hart's tongue fern' (asplenium scolopendrium), which is also rare in the Nordic countries.

Year: 2008.

(Flkm Bx)