These are some of my favourite fern photos from our fieldwork on the South Island’s West Coast.
Close up of the underside of a frond of carrier tangle fern, Gleichenia microphylla. Each of the yellow spheres is a spore-producing sporangia. This species has more or less flat and green frond undersides, and the sporangia often occur in groups (sori) of three. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.
Close up of the underside of a frond of alpine tangle fern, Gleichenia alpina. This species is densely covered in scales. After our fieldwork we are much the wiser about variation in tangle ferns, but no less confused. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.
Close-up of the hairy Hymenophyllum rufescens. I haven’t seen this fern very often. Its related to the fan-like filmy fern, Hymenophyllum flabellatum, which is common in the lowlands, but you have to go up and/or south to find Hymenophyllum rufescens. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.
Despite its alien-looks, this is the fertile, spore-producing frond of kiokio, Blechnum novae-zelandiae. Parts of ‘normal’-looking sterile fronds are in the background. Most Blechnum ferns produce markedly different-looking fertile and sterile fronds. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.
The distinctive ‘black-spot’ scales on the stipe (frond stalk) of kiokio (Blechnum novae-zelandiae). The similar swamp kiokio (Blechnum minus) is said to have uniformly tan scales, lacking black-spots. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.
The upperside of a fertile frond of the stumpy tree fern, Dicksonia lanata. The spherical spore-producing structures can be seen poking out from the underside of the frond where they are aggregated on the margins. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.
Other blog posts about our West Coast fern fieldwork cover:
