FERN GAZ. 19(2):33. 2012 MISSOUR! © J THIS ISSUE COMMEMORATES THE goth Pca OF A. C. JERMY GARDEN LI By wa as re gee 4 : ‘ Clive J Temy raring to go at Corswiten: Wales, ee with waders and Isoetes sampling rake, July 2009. Photo: Martin Rickard. 34 FERN GAZ. 19(2): 34-36. 2012 CLIVE JERMY — A TRIBUTE ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 80th BIRTHDAY, 3'4@ JULY 2012 When | first joined the BPS the two main players were Jimmy Dyce and... Clive Jermy. Jimmy took care of the horticultural side of things as well as field recording and Clive was the scientist and the motor behind the Society’s development into the more technical world. Clive joined the Society in 1959 following his appointment as the bright young thing to replace A.H.G. Alston as head of the Fern section at the Natural History Museum in London. The Society was in reasonable heart at the time but several senior members had passed on and it needed an invigorating boost. Clive provided that change by immediately taking over editorship of the British Fern Gazette. In the process he changed it out of all recognition. Vague narrative accounts soon disappeared to be replaced by scientific technical articles. This change raised the profile of the journal in the world of international pteridology. As a result we had a strong surge in our membership. There was of course a down side. Initially several members complained about the shift in emphasis, with at least one senior member resigning in disgust. Jimmy Dyce came to the rescue, correcting any imbalance by launching the News/etter, prompting the senior member to rejoin. The Newsletter was later replaced by the Bulletin and Pteridologist we see today. As the British Fern Gazette grew under Clive’s soa so the Society flourished — the differing interests running through the mem bershi p could only add to the Society’s strength. Through Clive’s ever-expanding list of contacts worldwide our Society was able to successfully organise several international symposia. Big names from all over the world were happy to come if Clive invited them All the time Clive was developing the British Fern Gazette he was also building his department at the Museum. Assisted by Jim Crabbe he collected a small elite staff of budding pteridologists, including the obligatory pretty girl, or two! He must have been busy, yet when young keen members like me pestered him with queries they always received a prompt reply. The replies were little more than notes on scraps of paper but Clive Jermy next to a fine specimen of Osmunda regalis, Cors Fochno, July 2009 CLIVE JERMY ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY a he always supplied the information required. He always signed off — “In haste, Clive”. He was obviously busy! Clive was great at getting everyone involved. In modern terminology he would probably be a ‘facilitator’. On one occasion he asked me to check a record in Cornwall. He’d been sent a frond in the post with the added note — is this Trichomanes? I’m pretty sure the sender knew perfectly well it was, but Clive suggested it would be useful if I confirmed the record. This I duly did in December 1968. I was happy and so was Clive! Typically generous, two or three years later Clive invited my wife and me to stay with him and his wife Alma at Otford. It enabled us to join in an Ashdown Forest meeting of the Society. A couple of years later we were able to return the gesture by having Clive and Alma, with their young children, Stuart and Nerida, and Jimmy Dyce join us for ten days in the French Alps, where I was working for the summer. To have Jimmy and Clive in such an environment was terrific. All that knowledge, keenness to explore... and dare | say... fun to be with! Very sadly Alma died far too young, but before anyone knew it Clive had married again. His new wife, Valerie, was a very long standing friend of Clive and Alma. Valerie lived in Herefordshire not far from me. Can you imagine my surprise to one day literally bump into Clive in a street in Leominster, Herefordshire? I had no idea he was in the area. Leominster is a long way from Otford in Kent! I had never lived near Clive so it was almost too good to be true to have him as a near neighbour. Meetings were no longer confined to weeks or weekends away. We had meals at each other’s houses and sampled the meals at a whole range of local pubs. There was a rule however, Valerie allowed talk about ferns until the meal arrived — after that the subject was banned — not always terribly successfully! Quite recently Clive organised a Drvopteris affinis day in his village hall at Staunton-on-Arrow. Ken Trewren was the key speaker. Clive’s connections with the Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI) came into play here. Several local vice-county recorders attended, adding significantly to the value of the meeting. nay es Clive Jermy (left) and Arthur Chater /soetes hunting, Cwmsymlog, July 2009 36 FERN GAZ. 19(2): 34-36. 2012 Throughout the years I have known him, Clive has always had strong connections with the BSBI, why he was never elected their President is a constant source of amazement to me. Outside the world of ferns he was principal author of British sedges as a BSBI Handbook (1968); this was followed in 1982 and 2007 by considerably enlarged and updated editions. There were times when I wondered just how Clive could allow himself to be distracted by, to me, such an uninteresting group of plants! Clive was of course one of the more prestigious Presidents of the BPS. During his tenure of the presidency the thorny issue of the Society name surfaced. This was one of the very few times I disagreed with him. He wanted change. I’m personally happy to say a ballot of all members was held with a large majority voting to keep the status quo. We did not fall out over it. In July 2009 I was able to drive Clive over to stay with his friend, Arthur Chater, in Aberystwyth so he could join us on a weekend meeting centred on Machynlleth organised by Barry Thomas. Clive was up to his old tricks here! He strolled off into the icy waters of a mountain lake looking for /soetes, admittedly wearing waders. Age was obviously having an effect — many years before I’d witnessed him venturing barefoot into a mountain lake in central France on the same quest! Over the years Clive published very widely on ferns and lycophytes. It would be inappropriate for me to attempt a full bibliography, but notable publications include: The phylogeny and classification of the ferns, with Jim Crabbe and Barry Thomas. 1973. Atlas of ferns of the British Isles, with H. Arnold, Lynne Farrell and Franklyn Perring. 1978. The genus Selaginella in tropical South America, with A.H.G. Alston and Josephine Rankin. 1981. Cytotaxonomic studies of the ferns of Trinidad, with Trevor Walker. 1985. A world of ferns, with Josephine Camus and Barry Thomas. 1991. The illustrated field guide to ferns and allied plants of the British Isles, with Josephine Camus. 1991. (Reprinted and expanded in German in 1998.) Very, very sadly Clive suffered a stroke late in 2009, leaving him semi-paralysed down the left hand side of his body, with his speech seriously impaired. Initially he was cared for in a hospital near Brecon, South Wales. At this time during a joint visit with Patrick Acock, Patrick and | started discussing equisetums. Clive was awake but not obviously interested in our conversation. I asked Patrick what the base chromosome number was for the genus. Patrick dithered, and before he could give an answer Clive shot out “108”! He was, of course, correct. Appearances are misleading. Despite the awful damage caused by the stroke Clive was very much on the ball. Before long Valerie had the Staunton-on-Arrow cottage adapted to accommodate an invalid and Clive was back home, albeit with a live-in carer. I cannot overstate my admiration for Valerie during this period. She paid attention to Clive’s every need with kindness and patience. Like everyone else I was devastated when I learned that she had passed away in her sleep. Life can be cruel. Clive’s stay in Herefordshire therefore came to an abrupt end. He was moved north, initially to a care home near Oswestry and finally just north of Wrexham where he is quite close to his son Stuart. His daughter, Nerida, lives and works in Australia but frequently comes over to visit. There will be quite a gathering of family and friends at Stuart’s home on the 14th July to celebrate the goth birthday (on 3rd July) of one of the world’s great pteridologists. Martin Rickard FERN GAZ. 19(2):37-46. 2012 37 IS EQUISETUM RAMOSISSIMUM (EQUISETACEAE: EQUISETOPHYTA) NATIVE TO THE BRITISH ISLES? F.J.LRUMSEY & M.SPENCER Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK (Email: F.Rumsey@nhm.ac.uk) Keywords: Equisetum = meridionale, Equisetum = moorei, herbarium, hybrid ABSTRACT A review of historic collections at BM has revealed a specimen of Equisetum ramosissimum collected by Buddle on Hounslow Heath in c.1705. This thermophilous ruderal species has generally been considered a recent introduction in the British Isles, first reported in 1949, its neophyte status having implications for its continuing protection under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act and other conservation actions. The hybrid with E. hvemale (E. x moorei) has long been known from the Irish east coast, in the absence of E. ramosissimum. Recently its hybrid with £. variegatum (E. x meridionale) has been recorded from Anglesey. Its recognition prompted a review of specimens of Equisetum subgenus Hippochaete from the Cheshire/Lancashire coast which showed obvious similarities, most previously regarded as E. variegatum or E. x trachyodon. The majority show distinctive micro-morphological characters associated with EF. ramosissimum and are considered to be E. = meridionale, or possibly an as yet un-described triploid backcross to FE. variegatum. Subsequently another overlooked BM _ herbarium specimen of E. ramosissimum from the Liverpool area, collected in the 19 century, was detected. We present a summary of the known occurrences of the species and, in the light of these new discoveries, re- assess the species status as “Native or Alien”. INTRODUCTION As part of the London Natural History Society’s London Flora Project, that aims to update Rodney Burton’s (1983) Flora of the London Area, Nick Bertrand, John Swindells and MS have been reviewing historic records based upon herbarium specimens in the Sloane Herbarium at the Natural History Museum. Most of this work has resulted in augmentation of data reported in previous county floras (Trimen & Dyer, 1869; Kent, 1975 & Burton, 1983) or the database of the current Middlesex vice-county recorder (MS). So far several interesting pieces of information have come to light, including the re-determination by FJR of a specimen in Herb. Buddle, in the Sloane Herbarium, which has led us to a re-consideration of the status of Equisetum ramosissimum Desf. in England. Further herbarium researches (and molecular studies, Tosh et al., in prep.) have provided additional and complementary evidence which considerably strengthens claim for native status for the species. Equisetum ramosissimum is the most abundant, and often the only horsetail present around the Mediterranean region. An extremely variable taxon, it extends as an 38 FERN GAZ. 19(2):37-46. 2012 unquestionably native plant northwards to the Loire valley in France, the mid reaches of the Rhine in Germany and eastwards through the Czech Republic, Crimea and into aes Russia. Prior to the herbarium discoveries reported here, the known history of this plant in the United Kingdom was as follows: it was first reported from an artificially created river bank near Boston, Lincs. (v.c. 53) (Alston, 1949), the plant having been discovered here in some quantity in 1947, by H. K. Airy Shaw. It has persisted to the present day, although in much reduced extent, the greater part of the colony having been destroyed by the extension of a municipal tip. As the habitat had effectively been created in 1884 (Gibbons, 1975) it seemed reasonable to assume that the plant was an introduction, particularly as a plausible potential mechanism - rhizome fragments in dumped ship’s ballast - was proposed. The species was next reported in 1983, from Ellenborough Park in Weston-super-mare, Somerset (v.c. 6), when Ro Fitzgerald sent Clive Jermy material for confirmation. It became apparent, however, that the plant had long been known at the locality (since at least 1963), but had not been correctly identified (Fitzgerald & Jermy, 1987). The site (Figurel), just inland from the sea front, is situated on an old sand dune system, the grassland within the park being a remnant of dune grassland enclosed over a century ago. Interestingly, the site lies within a few hundred metres of another sandy but once damper area, now developed, that less than a century ago supported the only v.c.6 population of Eguisetum hyemale L., growing here with a variable population of E. variegatum Schleich., Schleicher ex F. Weber & D. Mohr, now only known in the county in very small quantity on the dunes at Berrow (Crouch, pers. comm.). Figure 1. Equisetum ramosissimum at Ellenborough Park, Weston-Super-Mare, v.c..6 June 2011 (FJR) RUMSEY & SPENCER: EQUISETUM RAMOSISSIMUM ao Equisetum ramosissimum was subsequently found on a brown-field site close to the River Usk in Newport, Gwent (v.c.35) (Evans, 2006), where it was growing close to Scirpoides holoschoenus (L.) Sojak, another coastal Mediterranean species of questionable British status. Although covering an area of c. 100-150 m2 when first found, recent searches at the site (which was scheduled to be redeveloped when the plant was originally discovered) have failed to find the plant (Acock, pers. comm. ). Its status in this area is rather more difficult to assess. HERBARIUM DISCOVERIES SHOW A LONGER BRITISH HISTORY The Sloane herbarium at BM contains a specimen (Herb. Sloane 117: 11) (figure 2) annotated by Adam Buddle as *Equisetum nudum ramosum, Buddle, | gathered it on Hounslow heath’; the specimen is also annotated ‘R.H. 130” (referencing John Ray’s Historia Plantarum, 1686) by Sir Hans Sloane and ‘15’(referencing Buddle’s unpublished ethodus nova stirpium Britannicarum (Sloane manuscript 2975a vol. 6) by Dr Matthew Maty, Librarian of the newly established British Museum). Suspicion by MS that the plant was not £. palustre was confirmed by FJR who recognised it to be E. ramosissimum, a determination accepted by Pat Acock, the B.S.B.I. referee. It is probable that Buddle’s Hounslow Heath plant was initially mistaken for E. hyemale, which is currently rejected from the Middlesex flora (Trimen & Dyer, 1869: 336; Kent, 2000: 106). The original basis for including E. hyemale in the Middlesex flora is based upon references in Plante Cantabrigensis (Martyn, 1763: 71) and Flora Metropolitana (Cooper, 1836: 113), the latter stating that Edward Forster recorded E. hyemale from Hounslow Heath as well as Baldellia ranunculoides (L.) Parl.. In the Botany Library of the Natural History Museum there is a copy of The Botanists Guide through England and Wales (Turner & Dillwyn, 1805) annotated by Dawson Turner; on page 413 the record of E. hyemale attributed to Edward Forster has been amended to ‘Buddle’. Subsequently, Trimen and Dyer (1869: 336) commented that these references were mistakes either for E. fluviatile (as ‘limosum’) or E. palustre. On the same page Trimen and Dyer (1869: 336) stated that the first record for Equisetum palustre L. in Middlesex was from “Buddle, about 1705. An unbranched form, E. nudum ramosum (III), on a bog on Hounslow Heath, where nothing as yet but this has sprung up after the digging of peat; Budd. MSS. vi and Budd. Herb. cxvii, fol. li. This we suppose is E. lave pene nudum of Pet. Gr. Conc. 238 (see also Dill. in R. Syn. ili. 131)”. This statement by Trimen and Dyer was presumably later taken up by Kent (1975: 136), who stated that the first evidence of E. palustre in Middlesex was from “Buddle, c. 1705”. There is no specific indication by Kent that he viewed the Buddle specimen (Herb. Buddle 17: 11) or the relevant Buddle document in the Sloane manuscript collection (Sloane 2975a vol. 6). Hounslow Heath is currently largely inaccessible through its proximity to Heathrow airport and has been heavily modified or destroyed since Buddle’s day; there is one remaining area that survives, although that too has gone through many changes. This area is a designated Local Nature Reserve and still supports some heathland plants including bell heather (Erica cinerea L.), dwarf gorse (Ulex minor Roth), petty whin (Genista anglica L.), dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria L. ssp. tinctoria), heath rush (Juncus squarrosus L.), heath-grass (Danthonia decumbens (L.) DC.) and mat-grass (Nardus stricta L.). Historically, the heath was much richer and contained a significant list of vice-county and national rarities, most of which are now gone. Additional significant taxa recorded from the site between 1600 and the present day include: 40 FERN GAZ. 19(2):37-46. 2012 Figure 2. Equisetum ramosissimum specimen in Herb. Sloane 117: 11(BM) — right detail of apiculate strobilus. RUMSEY & SPENCER: EQUISETUM RAMOSISSIMUM 4] Lycopodiella inundata (L.) Holub, Lycopodium clavatum L., Blechnum spicant (L.) Roth, Pilularia globulifera L., Teesdalia nudicaulis (L.) W.T. Aiton, Viola canina : ssp. canina, V. lactea Sm., V. x militaris Savouré, Hypericum humifusum L. pulchrum L., H. elodes L., Cerastium semidecandrum L., Moenchia erecta (L.) : Gaertn., B. Mey & Scherb., Sagina nodosa (L.) Fenzl,, Trifolium striatum L., T. subterraneum L., Potentilla anglica Laichard, Lythrum hyssopifolia L., L. portula (L.) D.A. Webb, Epilobium palustre L., Mvriophyllum alterniflorum DC., Apium inundatum (L.) Rehb. f., Cicuta virosa L., Oenanthe fistulosa L., Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull, Erica tetralix L., Centunculus minimus L. , Gentiana pneumonanthe L., Cuscuta epithvmum (L.) L., Limosella aquatica L., Veronica scutellata L., Pedicularis palustris L., Euphrasia officinalis L. ssp. anglica (Pugsley) Silverside, Utricularia australis R. Br., U. minor L., Mentha pulegium L., Scutellaria minor Huds., Pulicaria vulgaris Gaertn., Filago minima (Sm.) Pers., Solidago virgaurea L., Chamaemelum nobile (L.) All., Cirsium dissectum (L.) Hill, Serratula tinctoria L., Baldellia ranunculoides (L.) Parl., Damasonium alisma Mill., Hydrocharis morsus-ranae L., Carex panicea L., C. echinata Murray and Koeleria macrantha (Ledeb.) Schult. (Trimen & Dyer, 1869; Kent, 1975; Burton, 1983). SUPPORTING EVIDENCE FROM HYBRIDS Described from Rockfield, Co. Wicklow (v.c. H20) where it was first found in 1851 (Newman, 1854), Equisetum x moorei Newman, the hybrid of E. ramosissimum with E. hyemale, is present along a narrow, circa 50 km. long section of the eastern Irish coast, from Ardmore point in Co. Wicklow at the north, to Wexford Harbour, Co. Wexford in the south (Praeger, 1934). Equisetum = moorei was also known for many years in Surrey (v.c.17); first recorded (as E. hyemale) by Druce (1912), the plant steadily increased until the 1970s in the garden of Lady Victoria Russell at the Ridgeway, Shere (Lousley, 1976). It was initially closely associated with bamboos which had been introduced from one of the family’s other gardens in the French Riviera and this was almost certainly its source. For reasons which are still unclear the plant declined and has not been seen for over 20 years in spite of several searches. The extensive and clearly natural Irish distribution of E. = moorei has, however, been taken as the clearest indication of the past occurrence of E. ramosissimum as native in these islands, but other scenarios as to its origin are arguably as plausible and must be considered (see Discussion). It is only extremely recently that further hybrids involving E. ramosissimum have been detected in the British Flora. Equisetum < meridionale (Milde) Chiov., the hybrid with E. variegatum was first found in coastal dune-slacks near Llyn Penryn, Anglesey, in 2000, but it was initially identified as E. x trachvodon A. Braun and not correctly determined until 2009 (Stace, 2010). A single diffuse thriving colony of several hundred stems is growing with one of its parents, E. variegatum. Living material from this site cultivated by FJR, while differing in propensity to cone, stature and branching, did not differ significantly in anatomy or micro-morphology from material previously ascribed to E. < trachyodon (E. hyemale = E. variegatum) from the Wirral coast, also in cultivation, as noted independently by Jepson et al., in prep. In particular the tubercles were not restricted to the angles of the stem ridges but formed continuous fused bands between the rows, a feature demonstrated by E. ramosissimum and also present in its hybrids (Lubienski et al. 2010). The hybrid horsetail on the Wirral coast has been contentious for many years; having been called both E. variegatum and E. hyemale, it 42 FERN GAZ. 19(2):37-46. 2012 was then identified as the first English occurrence of E. x trachyodon by Chris Page in 1979 (Barker, 1979), but it was noted to differ from typical material in its greater degree of branching. When first reported the plant was recorded as occurring along a 1.3km section of coastline stretching south from Red Rocks, Hoylake (v.c..58). Material from the northern end of the colony, growing with E. variegatum, was said to more closely approach that in form, whereas that further south was more robust and was said to be more like E. hyemale (Barker, 1979). Equisetum hyemale had been recorded in the general area (Dickinson, 1851; Newton, 1971) but in the absence of herbarium specimens these records are doubtful. Eguisetum hyemale did however occur at Heswell, 7km further south along the Dee estuary in 1871 (BM!) its current extent, ecology and morphology are discussed by Jepson et al., in prep. Examination of specimens of subgenus Hippochaete at BM from the Cheshire and adjacent Lancashire coasts revealed that the majority of specimens (26 sheets) previously determined as E. variegatum, while agreeing with it in most particulars, showed the tubercle character associated with E. ramosissimum. Interestingly these plants were not just from the Hoylake area but also from New Brighton and Wallasey in Cheshire and Southport and Crosby on the Lancashire coast (see Appendix | for specimen details). The earliest dated specimen was from New Brighton, collected by S. Simpson in 1839, although an undated gathering made by W. Borrer from the same site may be earlier. The considerable morphological similarity with E. variegatum (which is still present at the majority of these sites) suggests the possibility that some of these plants might represent a triploid hybrid resulting from the mating of a diplospore (unreduced plants containing E. ramosissimum genes were already spread along almost as extensive a length of the English coast as were their E. x moorei counterparts on the other side of the Irish Sea. During the herbarium Study a single specimen “nr. Liverpool, H. Seebohm Ex herb. J. Carroll (See figure 3) was identified as being E. ramosissimum. Henry Seebohm (1832-1895) was a wealthy industrialist and amateur natural historian particularly remembered for his oological studies. This find demonstrates the past occurrence of E. ramosissimum in the area and Suggests that some earlier unsupported records of E. hyemale may well have been of this species. . DISCUSSION Whilst as a thriving port Live ruderal taxa like E. ramosissimum, which could perhaps explain the newly found century suggest a much longer history S parent also influences considerations 2 brids may have formed de novo possibly from the fertilisation of E. ramosissimum gametophytes developed from spores dispersed from continental Europe, these becoming “swamped” by antherozoids from more numerous native E. hyemale or E. variegatum gametophytes, rather than having been derived from RUMSEY & SPENCER: EQUISETUM RAMOSISSIMUM 43 / / { Figure 3. Equisetum ramosissimum specimen from “Near Liverpool” H. Seebohm. BM ~ far left on mixed sheet. oe FERN GAZ. 19(2):37-46. 2012 native E. ramosissimum populations now lost. Both Equisetum hybrids (E. * moorei, E.x meridionale) demonstrate very low spore fertility. The great majority of spores in British and Irish plants are abortive, with most having poorly developed elaters. The degree of fertility is, however, variable, and small number of gametophytes of both E. < meridionale and E. aS = 7 Sag tet Pe at “8 4 pase fan", a * pe a ie & wy -% a —~ .a7 2 6 = @ ° *, = = a 4 7 ‘ oa 4 . ee 4 tel Die : FF: 4 = — 3 7 me: a sag