#sword fern

[summerswages]

particularly enthusiastic . . .

[oddestishottest]

08/17/25

[therencist]

[pixierainbows]

[mosswormartstudio]

🦌

Ref photo: Antler shed I found on a trail around the Oregon Caves NM&P

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Friday 6 February 2026

An evergreen fern forming a large clump, Polystichum munitum (western sword fern, giant holly fern, sword fern) makes a great addition to a woodland garden. It thrives in a shaded, fertile, moist, humus-rich soil but the crowns need to be protected from excessive winter wet.

Jill Raggett

[thesimpleleaf]

Plucked this intertwined combo of juncus and baby sword fern from a client’s container a few weeks ago and had a vision of it living in a mini pot on my desk and this past week it’s been putting up a new frond.

12.06.2025

[rebeccathenaturalist]

It has been a few years since I took a botanical illustration class. Since my winter semester is lighter on teaching and other activities than the rest of the year, I had been considering registering for the botanical illustration class through Portland Community College's Community Ed program (who I also teach for!) My partner insisted on paying for it for my Christmas present, so who was I to say no?

This morning was the first class--and we got to draw ferns! Specifically fronds of western sword fern (Polystichum munitum), one of the most common native ferns in the Pacific Northwest. I am a very slow artist, so what you see on the paper is the result of two and a half hours of work, a large portion of it spent just trying to get the individual leaflets right. And of course the shapes of everything changed as the frond began to dry out and distort, so that was an additional challenge. There were a bunch of times where I felt pretty frustrated, but I worked through them, and now that I look at what I drew today I feel much better about it. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of distance to appreciate something better.

I was talking with other students about the difference between examining a plant in detail to try to identify it, and to try to draw it. With the former, I'm attempting to verbally describe what makes this plant different from a similar one, whereas the latter requires me to depict its uniqueness through the lines I draw with my pencil. Even though the sensory input is the same, the parts of my brain that I'm engaging differ, as do the ways in which my brain communicates with my hands. It's been a really good exercise, and I wish I had more time to draw outside of these occasional classes. But I appreciate that I get to have this experience now, over the next few weeks.