The Ferns of Galiano Island, BC
Last updated July 2018
To date our community has documented a total of 10 species of fern for Galiano Island, confirming 91% of the historical records and adding 2 new species to the list. A total of 11 species are now reported for the island—with the moonwort Sceptridium multifidum still at large!
With 409 species known within the Georgia Depression and 859 species reported for British Columbia, our dataset represents a tiny fraction of the total spider diversity of our region. If you would like to contribute to our knowledge of Galiano Island’s spiders, please add your observations to the Biodiversity Galiano project. Because spider taxonomy often relies on the study of minute sexual characters, however, it is often necessary to collect specimens to identify them to species. Even then, they must be sexually mature! Spiders are also sexually dimorphic, so you can expect a fair amount of morphological variation in a given species. For more information on spider identification and collection, please don’t hesitate to contact the project curator.
Below you can explore a diagram showing the species reported for Galiano, organized by family (note the diagram does not show relationships between families, only species). Click the links to view local Galiano island-based observations of species documented so far. A gallery of the spiders documented to date on the project follows.
Our community is especially indebted to Robb Bennett, Darren Copley and Claudia Copley at the Royal BC Museum for their support of this project.
- Reported Spider Diversity: Galiano Island vs the Georgia Depression Ecoprovince [51:409 spp.] (Copley et al. unpublished data) 12%
- Reported Spider Diversity: Galiano Island vs British Columbia [51:859 spp.] (Bennett et al. 2017) 6%
Photo Gallery
Species List
Common Name | Taxon | Author | Order | Family | Origin | Project Status | Reported | Documented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| licorice fern | Polypodium glycyrrhiza | D.C. Eaton | Polypodiales | Polypodiaceae | native | confirmed | J. A. Calder (1961) | Lauren Magner & Andrew Simon (2015) |
| goldback fern | Pentagramma triangularis | (Kaulf.) Yatsk., Windham & E. Wollenw. | Polypodiales | Pteridaceae | native | confirmed | J. A. Calder (1961) | Lauren Magner & Andrew Simon (2015) |
| western sword fern | Polystichum munitum | (Kaulf.) C. Presl | Polypodiales | Dryopteridaceae | native | confirmed | A. Wood (1975) | Andrew Simon (2015) |
| bracken fern | Pteridium aquilinum ssp. pubescens | L. Underw. | Polypodiales | Dennstaedtiaceae | native | confirmed | Harvey Janszen (1980) | Andrew Simon (2015) |
| brittle bladderfern | Cystopteris fragilis | (L.) Bernh. | Polypodiales | Cystopteridaceae | native | confirmed | Harvey Janszen (1996) | Lauren Magner & Andrew Simon (2016) |
| lady fern | Athyrium filix-femina spp. cyclosorum | (Rupr.) C. Chr. | Polypodiales | Athyriaceae | native | confirmed | Hans Roemer (2000) | Lauren Magner & Andrew Simon (2015) |
| deer fern | Blechnum spicant | (L.) Sm. | Polypodiales | Blechnaceae | native | confirmed | Harvey Janszen (2003) | Lauren Magner & Andrew Simon (2016) |
| spiny wood fern | Dryopteris expansa | (C. Presl) Fraser-Jenk. & Jermy | Polypodiales | Dryopteridaceae | native | confirmed | Harvey Janszen (2003) | Alison, Laura & Malcolm Colwell (2016) |
| maidenhair spleenwort | Asplenium trichomanes | L. | Polypodiales | Aspleniaceae | native | new 2016 | Adam Huggins (2016) | |
| western maidenhair fern | Adiantum aleuticum | (Rupr.) C.A. Paris | Polypodiales | Pteridaceae | native | new 2017 | Andrew Simon (2017) | |
| leathery moonwort | Sceptridium multifidum | (S.G.Gmel.) Tagawa | Ophioglossales | Ophioglossaceae | native | reported | Harvey Janszen (1979) | undocumented |