If you missed the live broadcast of Science Live: Secret World of Ferns, it’s now on YouTube so you can watch it now or anytime you like.
The video explores the surprisingly complicated life-cycle of ferns, how to distinguish the different kinds of tree ferns, and we see inside the room holding Te Papa’s collection of plant specimens.
Te Papa is currently running a citizen science competition Find ferns and win!. Entry details are here (closes 31 May 2014).
The prize is either a natural history book from Te Papa Press or a personal tour of Te Papa’s botany collection.
You can get your eye in for ferns with our quiz: Is it a fern?
Here are links to more information on topics covered by the Secret World of Ferns:
- YouTube video showing the catapulting of spores out of their capsule.
- Blog post about the fern life cycle and gametophytes.
- Online guide to the different tree ferns in New Zealand.
- Video about the plant specimens collected in New Zealand during Captain Cook’s first expedition to the south-west Pacific in 1769-1770: the Banks and Solander Collection.
- Blog post about tangle ferns, particularly Gleichenia inclusisora.
- An example of one of the completed eFlora pages: hound’s tongue fern, Microsorum pustulatum.
And, finally, if you’d like to try connecting with ferns in a different way, try our personality test: What fern are you?
