flower fern friday saturday
tumblr deleted all my progress, so I'm reluctantly starting this over :/ doing mostly ferns this week because I'm in Aotearoa and they have almost 200 native ferns here. and also it's winter. so not a lot of flowers. I also fuckin love ferns because they are ancient plants that evolved before seeds! they reproduce with spores, which you can usually find organized under the leaf blade in clumps called sori. shoutout to my ferns of new zealand field guide that I bought my first day here because if course I did.
Punga, Cyathea dealbata, silver fern. we have to start here, don't we? the iconic silhouette of this iconic fern is the national symbol of aotearoa. this is a frond i found on the ground during a nature walk at Opepe Historic Reserve. couldn't find the plant that it was attached to, but did eventually find a different one at the end of the walk. showing off the sori here, and the silver undersides that make this fern so easy to identify. this is a tree fern, though. if tumblr allowed more photos I would post a picture of the tree as well (though it seemed to be growing. like. with a different species??? it was weird), but alas. I have too many ferns to post.
Pikopiko, hen and chickens fern, Asplenium bulbiferum. absolutely love this one. classic lookin fern, but its young plants will root in the fronds, which is absolutely insane?? this one was pointed out to me at Zealandia (reserve in Wellington) by our very cool tour guide. shoutout to Grant 🫡
Kiokio, Blechnum novae-zelandiae. everywhere I've been so far has had so many of these. super super common fern that dominates in moist areas. This taken on a hike at Remutaka.
Leather-leaf fern, Pyrrosia elaeagnifolia. I saw this a ton of times and did not realize it was a fern until I saw the sori on the bottom. They're epiphytic, which means they grow on other plants, usually in native trees! they honestly make the bush so lush and gorgeous.
Kowaowao, Microsorum postulatum. as seen growing around this little fairy village at Craters of the Moon, a geothermal area near taupo with geothermal pools, etc. these things are also everywhere, and often have sori so prominent that you can see them on the top of the frond, not just on the bottom. you can see this a bit in the fronds near the purple house.
Tangle fern, Gleichenia dicarpa. I think! we're getting towards harder to identify ones. this was seen at a different geothermal area near rotorua.
Piupiu, Blechnum discolor, crown fern. so named because they form a crown of sorts. not much else to say except they're quite common!
that's it for this week's ferns. I saw many others, with such diversity in shapes and growing patterns buuuuut these were the easiest for me to identify at the moment. still got more plants, though!
Tropical club moss, Lycopodium cernuum. this is not a moss!! club mosses are not mosses! they are ancient (moreso even than ferns, but not as ancient as true mosses) tracheotic plants. also pre-seeds of course. these guys live very close to geothermal pools, where very little else can grow.
Ptychomnium aciculare??? maybe???? god idk. it's a moss. of some sort. I'm putting it on here because i wanna talk about why club mosses aren't mosses. mosses are super duper extremely ancient plants. really some of the first land plants to evolve (a bit after liverworts i think, but that's kinda it). they are non-tracheophytes, which means they do not have a vascular system (or, if they do it is super primitive). they also have rhizoids instead of roots. for this reason, and because they have pores that don't fully close up the way more modern plants do, and because their reproduction happens in water, you will only find them living by sources of water (which. can be the sky if it is just amoist enough environment). saw this moss on that same hike at Remutaka.
Kanūka, Kunzea ericoides. hey look!! an actual flower!!!! woooo!!! some of the only blooming flowers I've seen and the only one I know for sure atm is a native, this is a flower in the same family as the famous Manūka flower (yeah like the honey). the flowers resemble each other but Kanūka are generally smaller. this specific Kanūka plant is cool, though, because it has a shrubby form here, despite this plant usually growing as a tree! that's because, these were observed at the Craters of the Moon geothermal park (see that steam in the background?) so the soil gets way too hot way too quickly for plants to grow deep roots. because of this, Kanūka in this area have been able to grow as shrubs instead, which is just incredible adaptability I think. they absolutely dominate the landscape too.
alright, that's it for this week! sorry this is so late (it is technically sunday for me when im posting this, but saturday for most of you so I'm sticking with that), it'll probably be late next week too 🤷
tagging my botanic buddies @bucklesdiaz @lesbucks @grapehyasynth @bugbugly @sunflowerbuckleys @mihidecet @diazboys @circledwithaheart @burntoobright @rhodeys @soupfic @the-sloth-king to remind you to stop and appreciate the plants around you this week and report back with any you find! IDs not necessary.
