#gleicheniaceae

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#2345 - Sticherus cunninghamii - Umbrella Fern

AKA Gleichenia cunninghamii, rarauheriki, waekura and tapuwae-kōtuku, among other local names.

Endemic to New Zealand, but most common in the North Island, particularly on the volcanic Plateau. Growing in lowland to montane forest, usually along shady stream banks and road cuttings where it can form the main ground cover. As here -

Apparently the sap was used as a powerful narcotic.

Whakapapa Village, North Island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand

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#2344 - Gleichenia alpina - Alpine Coral-Fern

AKA Mertensia alpina, Gleichenia dicarpa var. alpina, Platyzoma alpinum, Calymella alpina. Named after the German naturalist and plant physiologist Wilhelm Friedrich (Baron) von Gleichen (1717-1783).

A common fern in New Zealand and Tasmania, where it grows in boggy soil in alpine and subalpine conditions.

Can be grown from spores, and sometimes allows transplantation, but resents root disturbance.

Whakapapa Village, North Island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand

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#2221 - Dicranopteris linearis - False Staghorn Fern

Other common names include Old World forked fern, uluhe in Hawaii, and dilim in the Phillipines. One of the most widely distributed ferns in the wet Old World tropics, Polynesia and the Pacific.

A critical species in the Hawaiian Islands, rapidly colonised lava flows and other open areas and rapidly developing into a mat of rhizomes and dead stems up to a meter deep.

The fern has been used medicinally to treat parasitic worms in Indochina, skin ulcers and wounds in New Guinea, and fever in Malaysia. The growing fiddleheads are an attractive purple and used in flower arrangements.

Craters of the Moon, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand.