I was recently talking to a naturalist/botanist here in Northeast Ohio. She gave me some advice about identifying ferns. And, she recommended a nice booklet for the ferns in the Cleveland Metroparks. She said it can be very difficult to identify a fern from just an overview photo.
After reading that booklet and thinking about my discussion with the naturalist, I made a list of what photos one should try to get of a fern to help someone identify it.
An overall shot of the whole plant.
Take a photo of one frond. The overall shape of a front can be significant.
Take photos of the sub leaflets of the frond (pinnae and pinnules).
Take a good photo of the stalk. It may be furry, reddish, smooth, etc.
Take a photo of the underside of the frond. A lot of ferns have their spore holders (sori) there.
Take a close-up of the spore holders / sori.
If you don’t see anything on the back of a frond, look for a separate stalk in the plant with the spore holders / sori. Note that very young plants may not have their sori yet.
Take a photo of the general area around the fern or make a good note of its location.
While this may seem like a lot, it is similar to entering observations of mushrooms where you want more than a general photos. And, these photos of the details will be extremely helpful for someone trying to identify a fern observation. They will also help you if you get a good guidebook to the ferns in your area. (Since I’m just starting out, I can’t recommend any yet.)
Thank you for this! I love guides for how to take good photos of particular taxa like this. I’ve read a couple before and they help me next time I’m out, even if I’m not taking a photo, to better “see” those organisms. Reminds me of this journal post by sedgequeen: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/sedgequeen/81386-show-me-the-other-side
(Speaking of, posts on this forum can get lost to time a easier than journal posts on inat proper. I recommend making these tips into a journal post too so other people can find them in the future! @ken_ohio)
If you get all of that, it’s awesome, but it’s usually overkill. In most cases in your region, I’d say that a shot showing the overall shape of the leaf blade, and a close-up that shows the level of dissection and features such as scales/hairs/spinulose teeth (particularly showing the base of the blade where it meets the stipe) will suffice for just about anything (except a few difficult genera like Cystopteris and Polypodium). The North American fern flora isn’t wildly diverse, which gives identifiers like me a fighting chance.
The current state-of-the-art for eastern North American ferns is Emily Sessa’s field guide (Princeton University Press). Well-keyed with lavish illustrations showing key detail. The only real disadvantage is its scope, which takes in various things not found outside of Florida, etc.
I second the recommendation for Emily Sessa’s wonderful guide, which I’ve learned a lot from in the short six months I’ve had it. But I also agree the geographic scope can make it unnecessarily cumbersome to use, especially for those of us in the northern regions with far fewer ferns. I do appreciate the visual range maps on each page though, so I can check at a glance whether something even grows here.
Thanks for this topic. I was thinking that most of my ferns go un-identified, but I see that most of them are RG (except for those tricky horsetails!) Which means there are more fern identifiers than I thought, so thanks to all!
I generally only take 3 or 4 photos: one of the entire fern, one of a single frond, a close up of each side of a pinna, and a fertile frond if there are both fertile and non-fertile fronds.
I have the fieldguide Northeast Ferns by Steve Chadde, which does not include Ohio in its range, but probably applies to a large degree. It’s a classic field guide with ample excellent illustrations (drawings and photos.) It also includes fern relatives like clubmosses and fir-mosses (which are totally beyond my abilities.)
I also have the tiny key Fern Finder by Anne and Barbara Hallowell. It covers Central and Northeastern US and Canada (including Ohio and Michigan) It’s a classic key of the type “if this, then go to page X. If not, go to page Y”)
And it’s a slim 4"x6", so it could easily be carried in the field, though I never remember to do so … also, I prefer to do my identifying from the comfort of my sofa.
I think this is pretty good practice for most plants. After I first started making observations, I learned just how much tiny details matter. Bark texture, how branches join the main trunk, how leaves join to the branch and their stem, vein pattern in the leaves, top and bottom of the leaves, flower color, petal shape and pattern, flower distribution, reproductive parts in the flower…
I barely know what I’m doing, so I just try to be thorough.
I do that because I am not familiar with a lot of plants/trees. A lot of times, it’s overkill for someone who will eventually identify it. But, I think it’s good for us because it makes us really look at a plant’s features.
If you really like plants, you might like the short book, “In Defense of Plants” by Matt Candeias. He has a YouTube channel, too. The videos are like going on short field trips with him.