Adventieve tropische varens in een kweekserre: industrieel fijn stof als een mogelijke dispersievector

Casual tropical ferns in a glasshouse:
industrial dust as a potential dispersal agent. In 2005-2006, five exotic fern species (three of them not identified yet) new to Belgium and possibly to (continental) Europe, were discovered in a tomato glasshouse in Wachtebeke. These records clearly differ from other casual finds of exotic ferns, as they concern wild species, not escapes from cultivation. It seems plausible that spores have initially been introduced with ore and that afterwards the wind enabled spores to reach a glasshouse some three kilometres away from where the ore were stocked.