Not five minutes stroll from our house there is a patch of secondary-growth forest in Ross Creek that is particularly lush with tree ferns. On a steep hillside facing south, but well sheltered by canopy of lemonwoods, tree-fuchsia and lacebark the tree ferns flourish. From the pathway you can look down onto the crown of sliver ferns or ponga Cyathea dealbata. This is only a young specimen.
On the other side of the path, the size of these ferns is more obvious. Though in fact, this is the black tree fern Cyathea medullaris, it is the largest of New Zealand's native tree ferns and can grow to 20m tall. This specimen has a fair way to go - I estimate it to be a mere 3m tall. The fern book says it is fairly frost tender, but our next door neighbour has a small stand of large ones - easily 5m tall - in a shelterd gully. Hers would have been planted when the house was built about 15 years ago, and we've had some good frosts since then!
This fantastic rosette of fern leaves, belongs to a fine clump of crown fern Blechnum discolor, which in less trampled parts of the local bush (further up the hill!) can form extensive ground cover. Behind it is another silver fern.
Brownsey, P.J. & Smith-Dodsworth, J.C. New Zealand Ferns and Allied Plants Auckland, Bateman, 1989
