Ferns are one of the oldest plants. They first appear in the fossil record about 360 million years ago, but many of our present families and species only appeared about 145 million years ago.
Ferns figure in some folk tales and children’s stories, and are the emblem of New Zealand and probably of many towns.
They are one of my favorite plants. I’m not sure exactly why, apart from the fact it’s interesting to think of how long they have been around and that I tend to like “green” plants more than most garden flowers. Perhaps it’s because they have been part of my life for so long. As a child, I played with friends in an overgrown vacant lot opposite our house, which we called The Jungle. There were lots of huge bracken ferns, now considered a weed, but not to us then. We used to dare each other to swing out on a rope hanging from a tree, over some very prickly bushes, and jump off at the furthest point of the swing to land safely in a mat of bracken, before the rope swung back again! Ferns were also one of my earliest introductions to making art, when my aunts showed me how to make rubbings over fern leaves with my crayons.