When Gunnar Ovstebo and Andrew Ensoll landed in El Paso on
August 1, they traded in 60-degree highs in Scotland for a
chance to search the scorching Chihuahuan Desert for plants most
people would walk right past. The horticulturists from
Scotland's Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, were on a mission to
find ferns that included remnants of those dominating the Earth
hundreds of millions of years ago, before mammals, birds – and
even dinosaurs – existed. With the guidance of Wildflower Center
Plant Conservationist Michael Eason, they hit pay dirt over a
three-week span, making 35 collections of these flowerless
plants in four counties. The sites they visited ranged from
stark, open scrubland outside Presidio, Texas, the lush "sky
island" of Mount Livermore in the Davis Mountains and the
northern lip of the Rio Grande River, a melting 106-degrees F
during their visit. Ensoll glimpsed a mountain lion off in the
distance at Big Bend National Park and they both marveled at the
tenacity of a drought-damaged fern foun