JOHN T. MICKEL

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Ph.D.: University of Michigan, 1961
Title: Senior Curator
Research: Anemia and Elaphoglossum, Mexican ferns, cultivation of ferns


I study the systematics and floristics of ferns. Although I do monographic studies of Anemia and Elaphoglossum, I am interested in all ferns from all parts of the world. I have spent a great deal of time studying the pteridophytes of Mexico, and, in 1988, published the Pteridophyte Flora of Oaxaca, Mexico in collaboration with Joesph Beitel. This year Alan Smith and I submitted the Pteridophyte Flora of Mexico for publication in the Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden. I am also interested in the cultivation of ferns and have published a book entitled Ferns for American Gardens.

Our curator painting, representing the interests of Robbin Moran and myself, depicts the rich diversity of ferns in a Costa Rican cloud forest. Ferns shown are Asplenium serratum L. (bird's-nest fern), Cyathea sp. (tree fern), Elaphoglossum costaricense H. Christ (Paddle fern), E. decoratum (Kunze) T. Moore (dissected paddle fern), E. peltatum (Sw.) Urb. (potato fern), Huperzia pithyoides (Schlecht. & Cham.) Holub (clubmoss), H. dichaeoides (Maxon) Holub (clubmoss), Microgramma brunei (H. Christ) Lellinger (potato fern), Polypodium loriceum L. (polypody), Vittaria stipitata Kunze (shoestring fern).

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