Every ten years or so the pteridology community gets together and holds an international conference focused on ferns and lycophytes. This was the year, and Eric Schuettpelz of the Smithsonian Institution was the host for a fern-filled week in Washington, D.C., from June  1–5, 2015. It was a fantastic conference, including four full days of talks, an evening of posters, several workshops, and a field trip. Eric proposed in his closing remarks that every ten years is far too infrequent for these gatherings, and hopefully we can shorten the time to every six years, alternating with the International Botanical Congress (IBC).

A complete schedule of talks and posters is available in the program here. Members of the Sessa lab gave or were involved with several presentations (lab members in bold):

  • Genomics and Transcriptomics of Ferns and Lycophytes. Colloquium organized by Joshua P. Der (California State University Fullerton, USA), and Emily B. Sessa (University of Florida, USA).
  • JP Der, EB Sessa. Next-generation technology unfurls new opportunities for the next generation of pteridology.
  • PG Wolf, EB Sessa, DB Marchant, F-W Li, CJ Rothfels, EM Sigel, MA Gitzendanner, CJ Visger, JA Banks, DE Soltis, PS Soltis, KM Pryer, JP Der. Skimming the surface of fern nuclear genomes.
  • SH Zhan, CJ Rothfels, A Larsson, S Westland, D Burge, M Ruhsam, F-W Li, E Sigel, S Ellis, S Shaw, A Calked, T Chen, L DiGironomo, EB Sessa, JP Der, MS Barker, J Leebens-Mack, M Keyholes, G K-S Wong, D Stevenson, SW Graham. Phylotranscriptomics of the seed-free vascular plants.
  • DB Marchant, EB Sessa, K Heo, PS Soltis, DE Soltis. Delving into the C-Fern genome.
  • EB Sessa, L Trotta, SM Stevens, L Endara, JG Burleigh, B Baiser. Phylogenetic structure and diversity of Florida ferns.
  • MA Link-Pérez, TG Ludwig, EB Sessa. Investigating reticulate evolution in Adiantopsis using nuclear data: first glimpses.  
  • JB Pinson. The separation of generations: on the biogeography of long-lived fern gametophytes. 
  • AJ Grusz, JB Pinson, MD Windham. Exploring genotypic diversity in widespread apomictic species: a case study in the xeric-adapted fern, Myriopteris lindheimeri (Pteridaceae).
  • SM Stevens. Population differentiation and countergradient selection in the asexual fern Vittaria appalachiana.