Introduction Twenty-one years after the landmark publication of Southern African ferns and fern allies by John Burrows with his wife Sandra, a substantially updated and revised version has appeared in print. Two further authors – Neil Crouch and Ronell Klopper – joined their rank, assisted extensively by their spouses: Tanza Crouch undertook the book design and layout, and Arrie Klopper the cartography and much of the photography. Struik Nature has recently published this volume (Crouch et al. 2011) (Figure 1) in a more compact format than Burrows (1990); one that takes advantage of new publishing technology in the age of digital photography. Over 2 000 photographs are presented to reveal the 321 taxa recognised for the region, with an example of a species treatment shown by Figure 2. Where necessary, beautiful line illustrations by Sandra Burrows further complement the text, especially when microscopic or subterranean details have required highlighting. The authors undertook extensive fieldwork over several years, in the course of which they chanced upon several new species and significant new distribution records. They also rediscovered some ferns that had not been seen for many-a-year, in one case for over a century. The following illustrated story relies on its photographs to say those thousand words, with the text to briefly share the excitement and importance of the finds. Isoetes labri-draconis The specific epithet labri-draconis translates as “bathtub of the dragon”, for this species is typically confined to deep sandstone tarns at high altitudes in the southern Drakensberg, the mountain of the dragon (Figure 3). The uniqueness of this species became evident as the authors worked through their various photographs and compared the images they had taken of “Isoetes transvaalensis” across its range. This novel quillwort differs from I. transvaalensis in possessing shorter, stouter and more erect leaves, amongst other characters (Figure 4). The type locality in KwaZulu-Natal is very near to Sehlabathebe National Park in Lesotho, where it conceivably also occurs, and should be looked for. Dryopteris esterhuyseniae A poorly known Drakensberg endemic (Figures 5 & 6), confused in the literature with Dryopteris dracomontana which is a substantially smaller and more dimorphic species, and one that lacks the creeping rhizome of this high altitude specialist. 68 PlantLife No. 41 & 42 • 2012 Neil R. Crouch 1 and Ronell R. Klopper 2 1 Ethnobotany Unit, South African National Biodiversity Institute, P.O. Box 52099, Berea Road, 4007, South Africa / School of Chemistry, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 4041 South Africa. E-mail: n.crouch@sanbi.org.za 2 Biosystematics Research and Biodiversity Collections Division, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag X101, 0001 Pretoria / Department of Plant Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa. E-mail: r.klopper@sanbi.org.za Fern hunting in southern Africa: extraordinary finds behind the new comprehensive guide Figure 1. Front cover of the newly published Ferns of southern Africa.