#feather leaf fern

[fern-spotting]

Columbo S10E4 “Death Hits the Jackpot” (1991)

Fern...spotted at 3:25? Do we think a print of a drawing counts?

Not happy with that? Well, how's a painting of a fern?

Finally, at a funeral, we get a real, albeit cut, fern.

Finally, because I'm stubborn, here's a real, live, uncut Boston fern in the ultimate combo, at 1:22:46.

[fern-spotting]

Columbo S10E5 “No Time to Die” (1992)

Feather leaf fern spotted at 2:19!

This episode is notable for being the only Columbo episode not to feature a murder, as it is about a kidnapping. It also features my favorite non-recurring character, Tubby Comfort. He's absolutely written to be fatphobic comic relief, but as a person of similar appearance and stature, I would love if my job was to be a criminal informant with a weirdly cuddly nickname who lounged in the sauna eating fruit all day. That sounds awesome.

[fern-spotting]

Columbo S2E8: “Double Shock/Murder Times Two” (1973)

Fern spotted at 59:17. Another flower arrangement with a feather leaf fern. Truly underwhelming.

Bonus plants: just moments before at 58:50, this lobby with a fiddle-leaf fig (left) and two rubber trees (right).

[fern-spotting]

Columbo S3E2: “Any Old Port in a Storm” (1973)

Fern spotted at 1:08:47, in this flower arrangement. Another disappointment -- to wait so long just for this to be the only fern in the episode!

Bonus plant: this big parlor palm at 54:45. I could never keep these guys alive, but the characters in Columbo seem to have no such problems.

[fern-spotting]

Columbo S4E2 “Negative Reaction” (1974)

An underwhelming fern spotting: this feather-leaf fern in a flower arrangement at 13:09.

However, this magnificent tableau at 1:07:30 more than makes up for it. Here we've got the ultimate combo of Columbo with a Boston fern, and in such a painfully 1970s interior to boot. Worth the wait!

[fern-spotting]

Columbo S10E6 “A Bird in the Hand…” (1992)

Feather leaf fern spotted at 50:54.

Bonus plant: this dracaena marginata.

[fern-spotting]

Columbo S2E4: “Dagger of the Mind” (1972)

Ferns spotted at 33:59! And I'm not positive about the one on the right -- it might be a palm frond. The only vaguely fernlike foliage in the whole episode was in these flower arrangements. This episode was set in London, so I guess the set designers thought the English weren't big on ferns.