I love ferns in the garden. They are cool, tough and at the same time very delicate looking. The basket fern is my favourite.
The long green fronds, ready to be cut off to make room for the fresh ones emerging in spring.
This fern makes its own basket.
Please click pictures to see the intricacies of the nest
Basket Fern: Drynaria rigidula;
The fertile fronds of this fern can grow up to one and a half metres long. They were once divided, with the divisions extending to the rachis (the main axis of the lamina).
The fronds are irregular, leathery and stalk-like with irregularly toothed margins, their spores in a single row on either side of the mid rib (principal vein).
The nest leaves can be up to 36cm long and 8cm wide.
Its distribution is Queensland generally, and northern New South Wales from the coast to the ranges and the tablelands.
The Basket Fern is a very common fern throughout its range that can grow as an epiphyte or lithophyte (on wet rocks).
These ferns can grow to form large clumps, with fronds of two types on one growth. They have small brown leaves that catch leaf litter from the canopy to provide nutrients and larger leaves at the top to carry the spores.
The Basket Fern’s distinguishing features include the pinnate fertile fronds, and the fleshy rhizome (underground stem) bearing fronds of 2 types.
They are easily grown in a pot or basket of coarse mixture.
The Basket Fern forms a micro-habitat of its own as frogs, ants, birds and possums live there and other ferns and plants germinate in the basket.
Info rainforest Australia
Photos TS
Believe it or not; "A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience."
Miguel de Cervantes.
12 comments:
I too love ferns.I feel that any floral arrangement looks incomplete without ferns:) The Basket Ferns look great!I like the look of ferns in teh last shot. Beautiful!!
That is a very interesting fern. I don't think I've seen one. Lovely photos.
I love how these ferns enclose and nurture their own miniature world.
Nature truly is amazing and awe-inspiring, especially when one takes the time to study a plant such as the basket fern....thank you for the information, which was very interesting.
Great quote on proverbs too.
How interesting that this fern creates its own little ecosystem.
I love the water droplets. Beautiful photos.
Beautiful images. They sparkle.
I like the idea that other plants and various forms of wildlife can live inside the basket. Such a magical idea!
This fern really collects a lot in its basket, doesn't it? :)
I have a fern which looks very similar; I wonder if mine is a basket fern. It was a happy accident (grew in a pot containing another plant which I bought from a nursery) so I'm not too sure.
.....auch ich liebe Farne und bin gerade dabei einiges über die alten Pflanzen zu lernen. In meiner Waldeinsamkeit wachsen einige Arten,die sich zum Teil schon vor mir im Garten waren. Drynaria rigidula ist eine wunderschöne Pflanze, die auch eine bemerkenswete Größe erreicht. So schöne Fotos von einer faszinierenden Pflanze!!
Liebe Grüße von Heidi
We have another species here and its actually quite a nice plant, and takes a lot of neglect.
Loved reading about the world it creates...in the basket! As for the images, they're so beautiful! This is one interesting fern!
My mother used to grow them in the garden. She attached them to the trunk of the trees in our surrounding. That particular place we lived was cool being surrounded by a big river to the west and a small stream at the rear of the little house we call it Nipa Hut.
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