Alan R. Smith Research Botanist University Herbarium 1001 Valley Life Sciences Bldg. #2465 Berkeley, CA 94720-2465 (510) 643-1000 arsmith@uclink4.berkeley.edu

Ferns became my obsession and love after taking an O.T.S. course in Costa Rica in the summer of 1967, while a graduate student at Iowa State University. After coming to the University Herbarium in 1969, other field work in the tropics ensued, particularly in Mexico and Costa Rica. This eventually led to floristic work and the challenge of identifying thousands of exotic ferns for the herbarium. Some of the floristic work has been collaborative, especially with colleagues at the Missouri Botanical Garden. I am currently an Editorial Committee member of the Flora of North America North of Mexico project (anticipated 30 volumes), to write a modern floristic account of the vascular plants and bryophytes of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. I also teach a course and offer workshops on ferns.

Research Interests:

Dr. Alan Smith is in charge of the Pteridophytes and Grasses in the University Herbarium. He supervises all matters concerning pteridophyte collections and handles public service identifications for pteridophytes and grasses and plant identifications for campus, municipal, state, and federal agencies, as well as for private institutions and public universities.

His major research efforts during 1998--2002 included continued studies of:

• higher-level phylogenetic relationships of ferns and fern allies (with Kathleen Pryer and Paul Wolf),
• phylogenetic relationships of Polypodiaceae/Grammitidaceae (with Tom Ranker, Chris Haufler and Harald Schneider),
• Hymenophyllaceae (with Kathleen Pryer and J.-Yves Dubuisson),
• Thelypteridaceae (with Ray Cranfill),
• Equisetum (with Dave Des Marais and Kathleen Pryer).

• Venezuelan pteridophytes,
• Bolivian pteridophytes (with J. Gonzáles and M. Kessler),
• pteridophytes of Mexico (with John Mickel et al.),
• pteridophytes of Moorea, French Polynesia (with Andy Murdock)

Selected Publications:

1971. Systematics of the neotropical species of Thelypteris sect. Cyclosorus. Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 59: 1--143.

1972. Comparison of fern and flowering plant distributions with some evolutionary interpretations for ferns. Biotropica 4: 4--9.

1981. Pteridophytes. In D. E. Breedlove, ed., Flora of Chiapas, Part 2. Pp. 1--370. San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences.

1982. Nectaries in some neotropical species of Polypodium (Polypodiaceae): preliminary observations and analyses. Biotropica 14: 108--113. (with S. Koptur, I. Baker)

1983. Polypodiaceae -- Thelypterideae. [Family 14(4)]. No. 18 (pp. 1--148) of Flora of Ecuador, eds. G. Harling and B. Sparre. Stockholm: Swedish Research Council.

1986. Revision of the neotropical fern genus Cyclodium. Amer. Fern J. 76: 56--98.

1991. Recognition of the tetraploid, Polypodium calirhiza (Polypodiaceae) in western North America. Madroño 38: 233--248 (with S. Whitmore).

1992. Pteridophyta of Peru. Part III. 16. Thelypteridaceae. Fieldiana, Bot., n.s. 29: 1--80.

1992. Revision of the fern genus Enterosora (Grammitidaceae) in the New World. Syst. Bot. 17: 345--362. (with L. E. Bishop)

1993. Pteridophytes of North America. Pp. 247--266 in Flora of North America north of Mexico, Vol. 1, ed. Flora of North America Editorial Committee. Oxford University Press, New York. (with W. H. Wagner Jr.)

1993. Phytogeographic principles and their use in understanding fern relationships. J. Biogeogr. 20: 255--264.

1995. Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana, vol. 2, Pteridophytes, Spermatophytes: Acanthaceae--Araceae. ed. J. A. Steyermark, P. E. Berry, and B. K. Holst. Timber Press, Portland. (with L. E. Bishop, R. J. Hickey, K. U. Kramer, D. B. Lellinger, J. T. Mickel, R. C. Moran, B. Øllgaard)

1995[1996]. Non-molecular phylogenetic hypotheses for ferns. Amer. Fern J. 85: 104--122.

1995[1996]. Phylogenetic relationships of extant ferns based on evidence from morphology and rbcL sequences. Amer. Fern J. 85: 205--282. (with K. M. Pryer, J. E. Skog)