Author(s): Seiya Smith, Annina "Blue" Chan
Mentor(s): Michael C. Rotter
Institution UVU
Ferns and their allies have seen considerable changes to taxonomy in the past several decades. However, Utah is currently in need of an up to date taxonomic guide to the state’s vascular plants. To meet this need we created an updated taxonomic treatment to the ferns and allies of Utah County. Treatments were created by determining morphological traits from pictures and herbarium specimens sourced from the UVSC Herbarium, SEINet and iNaturalist. Ranges and habitats were determined using SEINet and iNaturalist Map Search. We described a total of 14 families, 17 genera, and 24 species within the Utah Valley area. Ferns in Utah County are found primarily in wet areas around Utah Lake, the Cascade Mountains and Mount Timpanogos. Common species include Pteridium aquilinum (Common Bracken), Equisetum spp. (Horsetails) while rare species include Cryptogramma stelleri (Stellar’s Rockbrake) and Azolla mexicana (Mexican mosquito fern) with Isoëtes echinospora (spiny-spore quillwort) now likely rare in the county. We hope that this updated species list will bring more awareness to the ferns and allies of Utah County.