This was the lead page of a mini website supporting the Fern Appreciation Walks which were led by Kevin Byrne from Easter 2016 until Covid put an end to them. Item 1, listed below, was provided to act as an aide memoire to participants, and it followed the route of the most basic walk through Colonsay House Woodland Gardens. Two small supplementary sections were intended, one to include a few species not included in the "basic" walk, and the other to cover those very few ferns for which records exist but have proved to be elusive. Incidentally, one additional species was discovered and recorded by KB, ca. 2023, Asplenium ceterach Rustyback Fern; as yet only the one example has been found in Colonsay, but it is fertile and being monitored. N.B. Kevin Byrne no longer leads walks, and one or two species names are subject to revision.
1. The basic walk through Colonsay House Gardens
2. Ferns encountered elsewhere in Colonsay
3. Ferns recorded from Colonsay but not yet seen locally by Kevin Byrne
Species Checklist of Pterophyta
Horsetails
Equisetum fluviatile Water Horsetail
E. palustre Marsh Horsetail
E.sylvaticum Wood Horsetail
E. arvense Common Horsetail
True Ferns
Botrychium lunaria Moonwort
Ophioglossum vulgatum Adder's Tongue
O. azoricum Small Adder's Tongue
Osmunda regalis Royal Fern
Pteridium aquilinum Bracken
Hymenophyllum tunbrigense Tunbridge Filmy Fern
H. wilsonii Wilson's Filmy Fern
Oreopteris limbosperma Mountain Fern
Phegopteris connectilis Beech Fern
Asplenium adiantum-nigrum Black Spleenwort
A. marinum Sea Spleenwort
A. trichomanes Maidenhair Spleenwort
A. trichomanes subsp. quadrivalens Common Maidenhair Spleenwort
A. ruta-muraria Wall Rue
A. scolopendrium Hart's-tongue Fern
Athyrium felix-femina Lady Fern
Cystopteris fragilis Brittle Bladder-fern
Dryopteris filix-mas Male Fern
D. affinis subsp. affinis Golden-scaled Male Fern
D. affinis subsp. borreri Borrer's Scaly Male Fern
D. affinis subsp. cambrensis Narrow Scaly Male Fern
D. dilitata Broad Buckler-fern
D. carthusiana Narrow Buckler-fern
D. aemula Hay-scented Buckler-fern
D. Oreades Mountain Male Fern
Polystichum setiferum Soft Shield-fern
P. aculeatum Hard Shield-fern
Gymnocarpum dryopteris Oak Fern
Blechnum spicant Hard Fern
Polypodium vulgare Common Polypody
P. interjectum Intermediate Polypody
"Fern Allies"
Huperzia selago Fir Clubmoss
Selaginella selaginoides Lesser Clubmoss
Isoetes lacustris Quillwort
Please email corrections, comments, suggestions and additional information to colonsaybyrne@gmail.com