Hardy Fern Library

Welcome to the home page of the Hardy Fern Library. The scope of the site is laid out on the page Site Focus.

Briefly, however, the purpose is to make identifying hardy ferns as easy as falling off a Dryopteris celsa. The impetus behind the site was frustration with the scattered state of the information. When trying to identify a candidate, it was often necessary to tap several sources. The difficulties are expanded on here. A commonsense solution seemed apparent: bring it all together in one place.

So, the aim is to fix this state of affairs. I suspect you are in for a surprise at how much is available on the net. However, the cornucopia is deceptive. The net library is neither complete nor always accurate. After you have a chance to meander around, I hope you will take up an invitation to improve the site.

Some intended features are still to come. One in particular, the main goal – searching by characters – is of high priority, but a prerequisite is accurate, complete fern descriptions. Perhaps you can improve the data here, as a capability to add resources and notes is part of the package.

Now, choose your favorite fern, and click away.