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In 2015, ecologists Chris Stowe and Claire Newell found a strange fern during a vegetation survey in Whirinaki Forest, in the eastern North Island. They sent a frond to Te Papa’s fern experts Leon Perrie and Patrick Brownsey, who were also puzzled. This fern was clearly a Dicksonia tree fern but didn’t match any known species. Was it a new species?Read more

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Congratulations to Pat Brownsey who has just been awarded the New Zealand Journal of Botany annual prize for 2016. In even-numbered years, this prize is for “established researchers”. This is “awarded to a person who has made a sustained contribution to the journal during the last five years (regularly publishingRead more

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Gully fern, also called pākauroharoha and Pneumatopteris pennigera, is one of the most common ferns in New Zealand.  You’ll have almost certainly seen it if you’ve ever walked in a New Zealand forest.  It occurs from the north of the North Island to the south of the South Island (althoughRead more

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Filmy ferns add a delicate, enveloping beauty to New Zealand’s forests.  Most are translucent, with fronds only one or a few cells thick.  Most are small, but they can carpet large areas of the ground or be prominent on the trunks of trees. New Zealand is home to 31 speciesRead more

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Please note: This fern has since been named. The You Called Me What?! exhibition celebrates 150 years of scientific discovery at Te Papa. A big part of this has been the scientific naming of more than 2500 animal and plant species by museum staff since 1865. We’re now giving youRead more

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Are you getting out and about these Christmas holidays? Then we’ve got the ideal FREE gift for you – the eFloraNZ chapter on the scaly tree ferns. eFloraNZ chapter for Cyathea, the scaly tree ferns. (pdf, 13 MB.) You’ll find scaly tree ferns almost everywhere in New Zealand where thereRead more

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During the recent expedition to central Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, my job was to document the ferns and lycophytes. This was at the invitation of Marika Tuiwawa (University of South Pacific) who led the expedition’s plant team. It built on my previous experience working with ferns in Fiji, NewRead more