Tag Archives: Cyathea

Guide to Fijian tree ferns

26 February 2013 – 12.28pm

An abundance of tree ferns is one of the botanical characteristics that New Zealand shares with many of the larger Pacific Islands. The number of different species is not especially high, but tree fern individuals feature prominently in many Pacific and New Zealand landscapes.

Following my work in Fiji, I’ve produced an online guide to Fiji’s tree ferns.  Pictures and diagnostic tips should help distinguish the different species.  This complements our existing online guide to New Zealand’s tree ferns.

Online guide to Fiji’s tree ferns.
Online guide to New Zealand’s tree ferns.

I hope the Fijian tree fern guide will be useful to tourists interested in Fiji’s biodiversity, and to locals managing these plants as a resource.

Cyathea lunulata, recognisable by its pale scales and frond stalks. The most prominent tree fern in the Fijian lowlands. Photo by Leon Perrie. (c) Te Papa.

Cyathea lunulata, recognisable by its pale scales and frond stalks. The most prominent tree fern in the Fijian lowlands. Photo by Leon Perrie. (c) Te Papa.

Cyathea lunulata is a good species to initially learn, as it is the most obvious tree fern in the lowlands of Fiji. It also occurs on other Pacific Islands. In fact, most of the tree ferns in Fiji also occur somewhere else, meaning this guide has some applicability to places like Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga, and the Cook Islands (but not to New Caledonia, which has its own distinct set of tree ferns).

All of the photos in the online guide are high resolution, and you should be able to ‘zoom in’ on them. However, technical limitations of our website currently prevent this. If you want to see this fixed, leaving a comment below may help prioritise the development of Te Papa’s website.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Collections Online, Ferns, Field trips, Pacific, Plants | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)

New Caledonian ferns with close relatives in New Zealand

31 October 2012 – 8.28am

A lot of New Caledonian species belong to fern genera that also occur in New Zealand. Some look very similar to New Zealand species, whereas others are quite different!  Here’s a few from my recent trip.

Cyathea albifrons. Like New Zealand’s silver fern (Cyathea dealbata), the fronds are white underneath. But the two species are not closely related. Cyathea albifrons was the dominant tree fern in the forested serpentine areas that we visited. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Cyathea intermedia. I’ve seen competing claims about whether New Zealand’s Cyathea medullaris or New Caledonia’s Cyathea intermedia was the world’s tallest tree fern. Having now seen them both, my vote is with Cyathea intermedia; easily. Majestically massive. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Dicksonia thyrsopteroides. Superficially similar to New Zealand’s Dicksonia squarrosa (wheki), but it is less hairy and the different-looking fertile parts of the frond are distinctive (see below). Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Dicksonia thyrsopteroides. The fertile parts of the frond, right and centre, look very different to the sterile parts, to the far left. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Trichomanes laetum. What a cute little fuzz ball! According to my books, laetum is Latin for attractive or joyful. The closest relative in New Zealand is Trichomanes elongatum. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Hymenophyllum rolandi-principis. There are lots of Hymenophyllum species in New Zealand, but I think none so elegant as this. Grows as an epiphyte in high altitude forest. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Adiantum novae-caledoniae. I suspect our DNA analyses will confirm this as being very closely related to Adiantum cunninghamii, A. fulvum, and A. viridescens of New Zealand, and Adiantum silvaticum of Australia. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Asplenium oligolepidum. An uncommon epiphyte. Preliminary DNA analyses have suggested that its relationship to New Zealand’s Asplenium oblongifolium and Asplenium obtusatum is not as close as one might suspect from its looks. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Blechnum obtusatum. Common around streams. A very handsome fern that could make a wonderful garden plant. Recalls somewhat Blechnum fluviatile or Blechnum durum, but unpublished DNA analyses indicate the closest New Zealand relatives are probably those currently classified as Doodia. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Blechnum corbassonii. A fairly common forest fern. Part of a group of New Caledonian Blechnum ferns that I found difficult to work with, but which are apparently related to Blechnum novae-zelandiae. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Blechnum diversifolium. Unusual for a Blechnum in that the frond is twice-divided. Blechnum fraseri in New Zealand does the same, and perhaps they’re related. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Sticherus montaguei. Reasonably common at the margins of upland forests. Up close it looks like Sticherus flabellatus, but it is much, much bigger. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Ferns, Field trips, Pacific, Plants | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

What’s a punga?

6 March 2009 – 12.19pm

THIS PAGE HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED.

A more comprehensive account of New Zealand’s tree ferns is available here.

‘Punga’ is a quintessential Kiwi word used to refer to tree ferns or sometimes, more specifically, the trunks of tree ferns.  But in his book A Dictionary of Maori Plant Names, James Beever does not record any tree ferns as being called punga by Māori.  I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that ‘punga’ is an English corruption of ponga. Does anyone know otherwise?

Ponga is the silver fern Cyathea dealbata, which is a real plant and not just a marketing creation!  Adult ponga are immediately recognisable by the white undersides of their fronds, and they can be identified even at a distance by the white tinge of their fronds’ stems.

The white underside of a frond of ponga, Cyathea dealbata.

The white underside of a frond of ponga, Cyathea dealbata.

Ponga, Cyathea dealbata.

Ponga, Cyathea dealbata.

There are two main groups of tree ferns: Cyathea and Dicksonia. They are easily distinguished since the former is scaly and the latter is hairy.

cyathea_dicksonia_koru

Koru, or young uncurling fronds, of Cyathea (left) and Dicksonia (right).

Besides ponga, the other prominent Cyathea in New Zealand are mamaku and kātote.  Mamaku, or Cyathea medullaris, is our tallest tree fern, with thick, black frond stems, and it is a common coloniser of hillside slips.

Te Papa has a specimen of mamaku collected in 1769 during Captain Cook’s first expedition.

Mamaku, Cyathea medullaris.

Mamaku, Cyathea medullaris.

Kātote, or Cyathea smithii, is recognised by its retention of dead frond stems as a ‘skirt’. It is more common in colder habitats.

Kātote, Cyathea smithii.

Kātote, Cyathea smithii.

Whekī (pronounced ‘fare-key’, with emphasis on the ‘e’ sound in ‘key’) and whekī-ponga are the prominent Dicksonia species in New Zealand. Whekī-ponga, or Dicksonia fibrosa, retains a skirt of dead fronds, and its trunk can reach a comparatively massive girth.

Whekī-ponga, Dicksonia fibrosa.

Whekī-ponga, Dicksonia fibrosa.

Whekī, or Dicksonia squarrosa, is commonly found around streams and other wet areas.  Even as young plants, whekī and whekī-ponga can be easily distinguished by the colour of their fronds’ stems, which are brown and green respectively. Whekī forms buds on its trunk, and it can resprout if the main crown is damaged – or if the fronds and roots are cut off and the trunk is used to make a fence!

dicksonia_squarrosa

Whekī, Dicksonia squarrosa.

Many pungas for sale are not actually ponga but whekī.  If you want to make a wall of tree fern trunks that has a reasonable chance of coming back to life, ask for whekī.

All of New Zealand’s tree ferns are described and illustrated in the book New Zealand Ferns and Allied Plants, by Patrick Brownsey and John Smith-Dodsworth.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Collections Online, Ferns, Plants | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (34)
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