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Dryopteris submontana (Fraser-Jenk. & Jermy) Fraser-Jenk.,
Rigid Buckler-fern

Account Summary

Native in N England, a definite mis-identification here.

1860; Smith, Rev Prof R.W.; "From the vicinity of Brookeborough".

Growth form and preferred habitats

A medium-sized, finely-divided, stiff, upright-fronded, deciduous Buckler-fern with a distinctive dull, greyish-green, mealy surface, this is a rare plant of base-rich rocks, including deep crevices (grikes) in limestone pavement, coarse limestone screes (block screes) and rock crevices where moist, humus-rich, peaty soils develop. D. submontana prefers a degree of shelter from weather and adequate protection from grazing is essential to its survival, but is intolerant of all but light shade. It therefore tends to occur in relatively inaccessible places, such as rock ledges, deeper, wider grikes in limestone pavement and amid thorny or evergreen scrub that provides shelter and protection.

British Isles occurrence

This is a rare plant confined to a limited area of limestone terrain in the northern English Pennines, although there are also rare outlying stations in N Wales and the NW Midlands.

Fermanagh occurrence

This fern, of which there is just the solitary record listed above, was recorded at the time as Lastrea rigidum (= L. rigida (Sw.) C. Presl). However, it must certainly be wrongly identified, since this very rare, deciduous, calcicole species which demands sheltered, moist, humus-rich soils, has never been found anywhere else in Ireland. Neither Meikle and his co-workers (who in 1957 and 1975 referred to the plant as Dryopteris villarii (Bell.) Woynar), nor we, can identify what fern might have been taken for this in error by an expert pteridologist like Rev Prof Smith.