Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-j5c6p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-08T01:10:01.465Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

XXII.—The Autecology of Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn): The Germination of the Spore, and the Development of the Prothallus and the Young Sporophyte*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Elsie Conway
Elsie Conway
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, University of Glasgow.
Get access

Extract

The rapid spread of bracken in some parts of the country has led to considerable investigation into the habits of the plant. But in almost all cases it is the spread of the adult sporophyte which has been described, and little attention has been paid to the insignificant, complementary half of the life cycle—the prothallus. Nor does any attempt appear to have been made to assess the rate of development of the prothallus and the young sporeling. A recent attempt to collect records of the occurrence of prothalli and young sporophytes in the field has shown how seldom they are found, and has emphasised the fact that little is known of the extent to which the plant spreads by the initiation of new colonies from spores (White, 1930).

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , 1949 , pp. 325 - 343
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1949

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This paper was assisted in publication by a grant from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

References

References to Literature

Arber, A., 1937. “Interpretation of the Flower”, Biological Reviews, 166.Google Scholar
Benson, M., and Blackwell, E. M., 1926. “Observations on a Lumbered Area in Surrey”, Journ. Ecol., XIV, 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bower, F. O., 1923. The Ferns, I.Google Scholar
Braid, K. W., 1935. “Eradication of Bracken by Cutting”, Scot. Journ. Agric., XVIII, 121.Google Scholar
Braid, K. W., and Conway, E., 1943. “Rate of Growth of Bracken”, Nature, CLII, 751.Google Scholar
Britten, J. European Ferns.Google Scholar
Farrow, E. P., 1915. “On the Ecology of the Vegetation of the Breckland”, Journ. Ecol., III, 211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenton, E. Wyllie, 1936. “Spread of Bracken and its Ecological Significance”, Agric. Prog., XIII, 66.Google Scholar
Fritsch, F. E., 1927. “Health Association on Hindhead Common”, Journ. Ecol., XV, 344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jefferys, H., 1917. “Vegetation of Four Durham Coal Measure Fells”, Journ. Ecol., V, 135.Google Scholar
Laurent, J., 1916. “Les Fougeres de la Champagne crayeuse”, Bulletin de la Soc. Bot. France, 4er scr., XVI, 256.Google Scholar
Long, H. C., and Fenton, E. Wyllie, 1938. “Story of the Bracken Fern”, Journ. Roy. Agric. Soc. Eng., XCIX, 15.Google Scholar
Loomis, W. E., and Shull, C. A., 1937. Methods of Plant Physiology, 427–428.Google Scholar
Louseley, J. E., 1936. “Notes on some interesting British Plants”, Journ. Bot., LXXIV, 200.Google Scholar
Louseley, J. E., 1939. “Pteridium aquilinum in London”, Journ. Bot., LXXVII, 181.Google Scholar
Louseley, J. E., 1946. “Bracken on Bombed Sites”, School Nat. Study, XLI, No. 162, 6.Google Scholar
Louseley, J. E., 1947. “Flora of the Bombed Sites in the City of London in 1944”, Bot. Soc. and Exch. Club, XII, 882.Google Scholar
Watt, A. S., 1940. “Ecology of Bracken—The Rhizome”, New Phyt., XXXIX, 401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watt, A. S., 1944. Report to the Agricultural Research Council (unpublished).Google Scholar
White, J. H., 1930. “Spread of Bracken by Spores”, Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., XXX, 209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, S., 1938. Manual of Pteridology, Chap. III, 107.Google Scholar