They do have many beautiful attributes but usually you have to look a little closer.
This Australian fern is no exception in the way it mothers its babies.
Cares for young
If you thought it was only animals that cared for their young, then this fern may change your mind.
With its apt name, the mother shield fern (Polystichum proliferum) forms proliferous buds or bulbils on the ends of the fronds, which develop into small ferns.
Then, as the old fronds sag down, the baby ferns come into contact with the ground and they can begin to root.
The fern tends to spread in this way rather than by rhizomes.
• Mother shield fern is endemic to Australia and abundant in Tasmania.
• See it in the Dunedin Botanic Garden's Australian border, near the aviary.
• Its fronds can reach 1m long, depending on how favourable the conditions are, and it develops a small trunk resembling a tree fern.
• In Tasmania, it forms a ground cover in gullies associated with snow peppermint (Eucalyptus coccifera), near soft treefern (Dicksonia antarctica) or among rocks in high-country regions.
• Polystichum is one of the most common types of fern worldwide - there are about 260 species.
• Two species are native to the Dunedin Town Belt: common shield fern (P. neozelandicum) and prickly shield fern (P. vestitum).
- Dylan Norfield is the geographic and arboretum collection curator at the Dunedin Botanic Garden.
