What is Pteridomania?
“Your daughters, perhaps, have been seized with the prevailing ‘Pteridomania’ … and wrangling over unpronounceable names of species (which seem different in each new Fern-book that they buy) … and yet you cannot deny that they find enjoyment in it, and are more active, more cheerful, more self-forgetful over it, than they would have been over novels and gossip, crochet and Berlin-wool.” – Charles Kingsley
If you have kids right now or in recent years, you’re probably familiar with how every last one of them seems to want to become a youtuber, twitch streamer, tiktokker, whatever. Prior to all this, when I was a kid, everyone wanted to start their own rock band and travel the world performing on stage (yes, including myself). Or publish a poetry book. I think it’s a natural human phenomena, especially for teens, to want to become known for something amazing. Otherwise, what’s the point? Who wants to become like their boring, mundane parents, who not only live boring, mundane lives, they aspire to nothing. They’ve given up. They had kids, and that’s it, that’s the end goal.
It’s nothing new. In the early-mid-1800’s, there was a new botanical scientific journal called The Phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany. The way to become famous for doing something cool or awesome was to be the first to describe a new species. Not only that, this was something that even girls could do – botany/biology wasn’t exclusive to boys, unlike much of the other sciences. Men still dominated the sciences as they always do – including in botanical fields – but I’ve certainly come across far more women who made contributions to the life sciences than others.
So why ferns?
Because the flowers, by the nature of being flowers, had largely been covered. You can’t expect anything to show off like a flower and not be noticed, right? But ferns, they all kinda look the same. Besides, there are a lot of ferns in the boggy parts of the UK, which is where this took off. And ferns were really easy to care for, generally speaking. It became the it-hobby of the times. People got wardian cases and bought fern collection supplies, pressed the fronds into books, made art with them, propagated and traded with each other. They were easily transported, and so many also collected US native ferns (I bet the Bartrams were largely involved in that).
The wealthier individuals would build fernhouses (there’s one at Morris Arboretum, photo above from 2014), and outdoor ferneries. Eventually fernhouses and ferneries gave way to stumperies, where people would garden with ferns (and stumps). If there’s any gardening trend that I love, this may have been my favorite, and I am actively working on my own stumpery. I also have my own Wardian case, though it currently displays a collection of natural oddities, rather than any living plants.
In any case, I’m clearly nearly 100 years too late for the Pteridomania movement, but maybe we could revive it? In fact, I have an idea. It’s no longer considered a good idea to go off en-masse and start digging ferns out of the wild. After all, the overcollection of Lygodium palmatum led to the need for swift action to protect it. The story goes that it was being used for wreaths, however I have a strong feeling it was more just Pteridomania as a whole that led to it. But you don’t really need to go collect them. You can just grow them yourself. In fact, it’s pretty easy to do.
This week’s zine is a very easy beginner’s guide to growing ferns. It’s much easier than you think – in fact I thought it was crazy complicated before I tried it, but when I did, I thought wait, that’s it? Why aren’t people doing this? I thought the reason people didn’t grow ferns was because it was too complicated, but I was wrong. Orchids are still complicated. Yes, of course I looked into it.
Where do you get spore? Just go to the American Fern Society, become a member, and you can participate in the spore exchange. I would recommend that as you get good at this, you follow their collection guide to send spore back to the exchange (providing you know how to ID it correctly). Please just pick one or two easy species to try – you can look up what some easy species might be.
Books for the Pteridophile:
If you really want to get into ferns, you’ll probably want some books. We may know more about them now than once before, but again, showy flowers (and now insects that visit showy flowers) get all the attention. Not too much info online about ferns. (Amazon affiliate links provided, but feel free to supprt your local – including used – bookstore.)
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How To Know The Ferns – the perfect book for the proper late-Victorian pteridophile just getting started on their own Pteridomania journey. This was published in 1899, and focuses on native ferns in the Northeastern US. I linked the used version, but check other sources, and it’s been since republished. I just don’t know anything about the new republished editions. I’m sure it’s free to download somewhere online too at this point, as 1899 was a very long time ago.
The next one is The Fern Grower’s Manual. I have two copies (of course), the older 1979 first edition and the newer 2001 Timber Press publication. The latter is not an affiliate link, but they didn’t have this edition online. Considering this newer edition is half the cost of the used 1979 edition, just get that one. I haven’t had a chance to really sit down and compare the two. I was gifted the latter and my marginalia in the former makes it less appealing to book resellers (but maybe I’ll sell my other copy here with my notes at some point).
The Fern Finder – you really should have all the “finder” series always tucked away in your naturalist backpack. What, you don’t have a naturalist backpack with fern frond collection envelopes and seed bags and a notebook? What are you waiting for? Do you need a zine to help you put one together? Ok, I can do that.
Peterson Field Guide for ferns. I really like the Peterson guides – in fact I reference their guide to herbal and medicinal guides heavily when telling you which plants were used medicinally in the nursery.
If you can your own copies, I do like William Cullina’s books and reference them periodically. One of the trilogy on propagation of native plants is Native Ferns, Moss and Grasses. If the price is closer to a Grant than a Benjamin, that’s a decent price. Sometimes resellers jack up the prices of these out-of-print books to a Grant and a Benjamin together, but don’t pay that. Hold out until the demand goes down and keep checking. You can also sometimes check ebay for them. I’ve never seen them hang around in stock on Thriftbooks, but you might get lucky.
Bonus book: Mosses of the Northern Forest by Jerry Jenkins. I have his grasses book and the recently published Field Guide to Woody Plants. I love his works. I don’t have this one yet but need it. Moss is, of course, a fern-ally and not a fern, but you’ll often find ferns and mosses growing near one another, so learn why not learn how to ID these too?
A bit of shameless self-promotion: I designed a tshirt for pteridophiles that’s perfect for Valentine’s Day, because fern gametophytes often look like tiny leafy hearts. What’s not to love? If you’re a pteridophile, show your love of ferns (and fern-allies) and and connect with others in the wild.
Link to Zine #2 here, which is my Dirtbag’s Guide to DIY seedless starting mix. I use this mix for starting my own ferns. Instructions on how to fold a zine can also be found on that link, if you haven’t been following along with the series. May as well grab the others too!
PDF to Zine #5 on Pteridomania here – or – click the image below, save, print, trim margins, fold, and enjoy!
