Not 'just' a fern

 The annual Bioblitz on iNaturalist took place this past weekend - from Friday to Monday. The objective of the Bioblitz is for observers to log their observations of fauna and flora of their region to contribute to the database of diversity for the area.

I'm part of the Great Southern Bioblitz - Garden Route region. On Saturday, my mom and I did a little walk - maybe 300m down and then back up, scoring 24 observations of different plants (a drop inthe ocean compared to the high scorers).

This time last year, I saw my first wild orchids along the trail that I chose to visit to capture some Bioblitz observations. I was really hoping to spot more. I got lucky finding two - a Satyre (with flowers) and a Disa (flower buds).

My big score was actually in the fern department.

I've never been big on ferns. Sure, they are green, leafy and pretty, but I've never really paid them much attention. 

The little that I remember about ferns from school is that they are ancient with evidence of ferns in the fossil records going back millions of years before the dinosaurs, and that they have spores, not seeds, underneath the leaves.

A quick search reminded me of the weird lifecycle of ferns, another interesting characteristic of these plants. No other plant has two separate living structures in their lifecycle.

Not knowing much about types of ferns, my identification skills are somewhat limited to the domestic sword fern, maiden-hair fern and tree fern. And then there is the common bracken, a type of fern, that grows all over the place. I tend to ignore ferns, not bothering much to photograph them for iNaturalist.

My mom saw 'our' one and exclaimed, "A tree fern," encouraging me to take photos of it. I did.

I didn't really plan to log the observation. Afterall, it was 'just' a tree fern type fern. On Wednesday night, wanting to contribute more to the Bioblitz, I decided to log it.

I logged it as Class Polypodiopsida, which is the 'Fern' class. I then scrolled through dozens of photos of types of ferns, settling on the Knysna Wood Fern as the closest candidate. There were only a few photos from one observation. In South Africa. I made a note about the almost rectangular-shaped pinnules and that Amauropelta knysnaensis - Knysna Wood Fern looked like the closest option. 

I went to bed.

The next day, I had a response from an identifier who knows his ferns. His response said simply, "It is!".

This 'just a fern' log is now the second observation logged for this species not just for the Garden Route, not just for South Africa, not just for Africa, but for The World!

Base of the Knysna Wood Fern

Uncurling frond of the Knysna Wood Fern

This is it, the Knysna Wood Fern

Frond of the Knysna Wood Fern

Close-up of the pinnules of the Knysna Wood Fern

Back of the pinnules of the Knysna Wood Fern.

This is the real purpose of iNaturalist.

Sure, there are more of these fern individuals that exist, but they haven't been logged. The purpose of observations is to collect data on species, distribution, seasonality, flowering, fruiting, and frequency. The more citizen scientist observers you have out there, collecting the data, the better the boxes will be ticked.

There will be biases because observers are selective in what they want to photograph and log. A non-descript, small green hard-to-identify plant will be overlooked in favour of a flowering plant; and then you get people like me who mostly ignore the plants in favour of fungi. Having more people, each with different preferences, I like to think that so much more will be covered.

I didn't do much for this Bioblitz - a short outing with my mom; but I'm glad I did something. Only one other guy when out to the same area (another trail nearby) and I saw a lot more than I photographed. 

With this fern as a notch in my observation belt, when I took the dogs out on Thursday evening I decided to pick fronds from any of the ferns that I encountered to be able to closely compare them. I was astounded by the diversity.

Within about 300m, next to trails that I regularly take, I found these (and a few more):

Each one different - and there were more. Note the sori (clusters of reproductive structures) on some of the pinna and pinnules. Just fabulous. 

I must have about 12 or 13 different ferns that I brought home and photographed. I haven't tried to identify them yet but I certainly do have a whole new appreciation for ferns.