flora-file

Plant of the Day

Saturday 23 May 2026

The new foliage of Sorbaria sorbifolia 'Sem' (false spirea) is a distinctive yellow-green flushed with bright reddish-pink and bronze with the leaves becoming greener in summer. This cultivar is a more compact form of this thicket-forming shrub composed of upright stems. This plant can be invasive and needs to be managed.

A very large epiphytic fern endemic to Australia, with a somewhat complicated taxonomic history, not helped by the fact that it's anatomy is so simple that there's not much to distinguish it from related species. For example, Japanese ferns which were considered to be A. australasicum were found to be so genetically distinct they got renamed A. setori. It's also very similar to Asplenium nidus, which unhelpfully is also called Bird's Nest Fern, and is found from east tropical Africa, across Asia to Japan, and in northern Australia and various Pacific Islands.

The fern can grow to over a meter and a half across, collecting falling plant debris in the middle of the rosette - and also acquiring snakes, which can be a surprise for fern collectors. A popular ornamental plant, where given sufficient drainage, and grown as a vegetable for the growing fronds in Taiwan.

Backyard flowers.

blooms in triumph

“Author’s discovery blooms in triumph at 14,650 feet.”

October 1950