Colgate professor Eddie Watkins published a new paper in the journal Brittonia with Rehman Momin ’15, Wes Testo ’12 and Jarmilla Pitterman, a professor at UC Santa Cruz. Brittonia is a specialized botanical journal managed by the New York Botanical Garden. The article outlines the discovery of a rare new hybrid fern in Costa Rica.
“The flora of Costa Rica is well known” Watkins said. “Finding any sort of new species or hybrid in that country is exciting. The new fern we discovered is an unusual hybrid between two quite different parental species, and is in fact, the only known hybrid in this particular section of the genus. It is also a huge plant with leaves over one meter wide.”
Ferns are in the news lately, and not just at Colgate. NPR recently ran a story about another new hybrid fern recently discovered in the French Pyrenees.
“Hybrids tell you something about the evolutionary history of the two parental species… more distantly related species are less likely to cross. It also tells you something about the reproductive biology of the species,” said Wakins. “In our case, the parents are not closely related, but they can still form a hybrid. This suggests something unusual about reproductive isolating mechanisms in the group.”
Wes Testo ’12 works in the field. (Photo by Jarmilla Pitterman)
Watkins and team named the fern Pteris xcaridadiae after Caridad Zúñiga Calvo, the matriarch of a Costa Rican family that owns and protects the area where the new fern grows. The place where they made the discovery is one of the most endangered biomes in the world. “The name was perfectly appropriate,” Watkins said, “because neither the fern nor the forest would be there without Caridad and her family.”
It is also a fitting name as Caridad translates to charity in English. “What is more charitable than saving a rare piece of nature for future generations?”
This paper is part of a long-term association between Watkins and Testo. “It has been so much fun to watch Wes develop over the years” said Watkins proudly. “He has already become a respected figure in my professional community!”
Learn more about the research conducted by Watkins here: