Flora of Scotland - Ferns

Ferns

Bracken is very common in upland areas, Beech Fern in woods and other shaded locations and Scaly Male Fern in wooded or open areas. Wilsons Filmy-fern is a common upland variety in the Highlands, along with the Tunbridge Filmy-fern, Alpine Lady-fern and the rarer stunted form Newman’s Lady-fern (A. distentifolium var. flexile) which is endemic to Scotland. The Killarney Fern, once found on Arran was thought to be extinct in Scotland, but has been discovered on Skye in its gametophyte form.

Scotland's populations of Alpine Woodsia and Oblong Woodsia are on the edge of their natural ranges. The UK distribution of the former is confined to Angus, Perthshire, Argyll and north Wales, and of the latter to Angus, the Moffatt Hills, north Wales and two locations in England. The plants were first identified as separate species by John Bolton in 1785 and came under severe threat from Victorian fern collectors in the mid 19th century. Cystopteris dickieana, first discovered in a sea cave in Kincardineshire, is a rare fern in a UK context whose distribution is confined to Scotland, although recent research suggests that it may be a variant of C. fragilis rather than a species in its own right.