"A real head-turner for shady sites" says one plant guide, another calls this the finest of the Japanese Painted Ferns. I'm not going to argue. This clump grows just by the foot of some steps leading to our front door, and takes over from a clump of hellebores which have just finished flowering.
A North American website said "Though deer do like it, it can quickly produce more fronds and may show no lasting ill effects", well of course in town we don't need to worry about deer. Though, by the way, New Zealand has seven species of feral deer, including red, sika, fallow, and himalayan tahr. What were those early settlers thinking about? Well, hunting obviously - its just a shame that most introduced mammals have turend out to be such enormous pests. There was at one time moose in fiordland, but despite numerous attempts and umpteen infra-red cameras to catch them, none have been seen since the last was shot in the 1920s. The browse lines in fiordland undergrowth have convinced some that moose could still flourish. A few years ago Ken & Marg Tustin had some hairs DNA tested in Canada (click here) and apparently there really are moose lurking in the thick undergrowth.
To do it the courtesy of a full title this is, Japanese Painted Fern Ursula's Red, Athyrium nipponicum var pictum.
