Eino Oinonen

The correlation between the size of Finnish bracken (Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn.) clones and certain periods of site history

Oinonen E. (1967). The correlation between the size of Finnish bracken (Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn.) clones and certain periods of site history. Acta Forestalia Fennica vol. 83 no. 2 article id 7180. https://doi.org/10.14214/aff.7180

Abstract

In an earlier paper of the author it was established that bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn.) that the sporal regeneration of the species is almost entirely connected with fire, and that the size of the bracken fern clones, distinguished by their characteristics, was related to the time of the fire. The time of the fire was determined by the samples taken with auger from the trees on the sample plots. A large data on the occurrence of bracken fern was collected around Finland, but only part of it could be used in the previous study, as the trees of the site provided no means to find out it the site had been burned earlier.

In earlier studies, a mass occurrence of sporelings of bracken fern in England has been connected to cities bombed and burned during the World War II. In this study the data of the clones is connected to historical sources and the time of wars in Finland. The comparisons in this study have confirmed the results achieved by comparing the dimensions of the bracken clones to the fire dates. It was found that the wars have caused an increase in the regeneration frequency of bracken fern.

Keywords
regeneration; distribution; forest fire; Pteridium aquilinum; bracken fern; wars; ground fire

Published in 1967

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Available at https://doi.org/10.14214/aff.7180 | Download PDF