beautiful beautiful pics of uncommon ferns! Thanks! Its great to see pics in winter!

Paula

On a trip to the dragoon mountains I have seen a fernb that very closely resembles the Astrolepis sp. on the top of the page.

Paula--you're welcome!

durza2111--I was in the Dragoons just before Thanksgiving; I went down the Cochise Stronghold Trail, and saw a couple of Astrolepis integerrima along the trail. You can also find the largest clumps of Cheilanthes fendleri--which looks a lot like Cheilanthes wootonii--I've ever seen if you go on that trail until the switchbacks that go down into West Stronghold Canyon.

Patrick Alexander

I'm not great with latins.. are the Cheilanthes wootonii some how related to rusty woodsias? I have some rusty woodsias and I swear they could be the same thing (or *are* they the same thing? LMAO)....

Paula

Woodsia is one of the cases where the common name and the genus name are the same; Woodsia and Cheilanthes are in the same family, but are separate genera. Out here in NM, the Woodsias are at higher elevations or further north than most of the Cheilanthes. They certainly do look similar, though; at the herbarium here at NMSU, we had a few Woodsias that had originally been identified as Cheilanthes.

Patrick Alexander

Great fern pics, truly superb plants!

Seeing ferns growing out of that rocky inhospitable landscape is such a contrast to how I usually think of ferns...they must have incredible root systems to survive. Do any of them curl up in a state of hibernation between rainy periods like at least one of our SE ferns or are they just able to tough it out? I always think of most of the southwest as so dry and yet in the mountains so cold...thank you for showing that some ferns can exist in very harsh conditions. Not so delicate as they appear. josh

Beautiful ferns, and pics 3 and 6 are excellent quality!

Thanks, Larry and Josh.

Josh: The ferns out here are often restricted to relatively moist microenvironments (rocky north slopes, in ravines, etc.) but some of them (especially Astrolepis cochisensis) can also be pretty abundant out on unprotected south-facing slopes. With the exception of a few ferns that are limited to places that stay somewhat moist the whole year round (wet seeps in deep canyons, ususally), they all either have leaves that curl up when dry and can re-expand with new moisture, or simply have their leaves die off entirely when it's too dry. Right now they're pretty much all in the brown and crispy phase.

Patrick Alexander