English name: Killarney Fern
Gaelic name: Raineach Chill Airne

New Atlas:
1987-1999: NG61, 71, 72.

Altitude distribution on Skye
Minimum: 10m.
Maximum: 100m.

The discovery of the gametophyte stage of Trichomanes speciosum on Skye was made during the BPS Centenary field meeting in August 1991 and was reported in the 1991 BPS Bulletin as follows:

“It was our intention that the two groups should meet at Allt Caillte, but neither made it that far. The oak-ash woods found down that coast were good for ferns: Dryopteris aemula, D. affinis, oak fern and beech fern were quite common. The gullies however were narrow and difficult to penetrate. Large sandstone boulders formed deep clefts and softer bedded sandstones would erode leaving deep undercuts; in both, in the darkest areas in several gullies, Clive found the sterile filamentous gametophyte of Trichomanes speciosum, the Killarney bristle fern. This gametophyte, which for some unknown reason is reluctant to form sex organs and therefore never produces the ‘adult’ fern or sporophyte, has been found in similar sandstone crannies from Cornwall to Sutherland. This was the first record from Skye and was found independently at Rubha Guail by Rob Cooke, who was with the main party in Kinloch woods.”

For further details of the occurrence of the gametophyte in the British Isles see Watsonia 22: 1-19 (1998).