Today I went for my first serious walk in months around Buriton
This particular place is very good for Asplenium scolopendrium, which looks at its most spectacular when all the other vegetation around it has died down

Also in this area is one patch of Asplenium adiantum-nigrum. This fern is common growing in walls in Hampshire but is rare growing in the ground. It also looks its best in winter

In my last post on this subject in December 2019, I noticed that repairs had been made to the railway bridge and seemed to have wiped out the Adiantum capillus-veneris
However today when I looked at the wall it seems that several new colonies have appeared

This post is about how I sow the spores I have received from the BPS Spore Exchange using a method decribed to me by Steve Munyard
To this end I bought 50 small square pots from ebay . They are rugged and microwave proof

I fill 20 of these with cheap compost from Wilkinsons and place them in a large propagator
I fill the propagator with water to about 1cm
I replace the lid and and leave for 24 hours for the compost to become fully wet

After 24 hours I put each pot singly into my (dirty) microwave and cook on full power for 2 minutes
I take the pot out and cover with cardboard and replace in the propagator
Again I replace the lid and leave for 24 hours to cool down

I sort out my spores and create labels using the Dymo label printer

The spore packets that arrive from the BPS are beautifully wrapped in aluminium foil
I unpack them carefully using a scalpel

Eventually you will find the spores inside

I keep the propagator in my conservatory and I take one pot, one at time, into the kitchen where I unwrap a spore package and place it carefully into the pot and then replace the cardboard and replace it in the propagator

Eventually the propgator has all 20 pots and the lid is replaced

Both the cardboard and the aluminium can be removed in 24-48 hours

Steve tells me that the only additional thing he does is to have artificial LED light on top of the propagator as this seems to speed things up. The lights are on for 10 to 12 hours a day
My propogator is in my conservatory which has quite a lot of light

This is a diagramatic representation of a fern gametophyte

This is a gametophyte of Asplenium ceterach

There are 3 young sporophytes growing on gametophytes

This is a gametophyte that has failed to germinate, it has grown quite large

This map is a detail map of the Carribean where there are lots of small islands with lots of ferns

The following table lists the countries sorted by which have the largest ratio of fern species per Km²
This table may be a bit misleading in that the country with the largest number of ferns, China (1888), comes in at position 126
However it might come in useful if you wanted to spend a week looking for ferns
Some of the countries have links to extra information about the ferns of the area
This list only contains data for sovereign countries and thus does not have data for semi-autonomous areas such as Macaronesia

Fern count numbers taken from Hassler, Michael (2004 – 2020): World Plants. Synonymic Checklist and Distribution of the World Flora. Version 11.1; last update Dec. 8, 2020. – www.worldplants.de

Country size data take from worldometers.info