Article Launched 01/29/2006
Jennifer Morey The Times-Standard
Ferns Add To Beauty Of Local Forests, Gardens
Leather-leaf. Maidenhair. Five-finger fern. Their
names evoke a sense of other-worldliness,
as if one might expect to find them in the forests of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel,
but they're right
here on the North Coast.
When we think of our coastal counties and what
types of plants are native to the region, a few
species automatically come to mind, like redwood trees, rhododendrons and Iris
douglasiana.
But take a walk in a forest here and you'll realize that there's also an
abundance of native ferns
that can greatly enhance our experience in nature if we just take the time to
stop and look at them.
Planting ferns in our home gardens is certainly
one way to enjoy their presence, though it doesn't
quite compare with the impact of strolling through a forest and suddenly coming
upon the sight of
hundreds of ferns blanketing the sun-dappled forest floor.
At the base of many a redwood tree, it's likely you'll see a member of the Polystichum genus.
”One fern that is everywhere is the
swordfern,” said Rick Storre, owner of Freshwater Farms and a
native-plant columnist for the Times-Standard. “They can get to be pretty big,
almost primordial,
but they're normally about three or four feet tall.”
It's that primordial sight of hundreds of huge
swordferns that can cause us to pause and just breathe
in the ancient feeling when we come across them in a redwood forest. Such is the
case in parts of
Sequoia Park in Eureka. In particular, the canyon floor just east of the zoo on
W Street is thick with
swordferns. (One almost expects to see an Ewok peeking out from behind one of
the ancient trees.)
To reach the gully, pick up one of the trails leading from the group picnic area
just inside the park
entrance.
The western swordfern will spread out as a ground
cover and can be grown from spores or by dividing
the rhizomes in spring, according to the website of the North Coast Chapter of
the California Native
Plant Society. (northcoastcnps.org)
When growing swordferns, be sure to remove old
fronds, recommends Times-Standard gardening
columnist Terry Kramer.
”The western swordfern, Polystichum munitum, is
a tough, hardy fern that can take full sun on the
coast,” Kramer said. “It is fairly drought-tolerant once established. This
one can get a bad rap for
looking shabby with age, but that's because people don't cut them back to the
ground in the winter.
A good shearing rejuvenates the fern.”
Although she emphasizes that she's not an expert
in ferns, Kramer has her favorites.
”I do like the five-finger fern, Adiantum
aleuticum and California maidenhair fern, Adiantum jordanii,”
she said. “Both have this very delicate, light airy look. They do well in
filtered light, or deep shade.
They need a spongy, woodsy soil full of organic matter. They also need to be
kept moist during the dry
months.”
The five-finger fern, also sometimes called
Aleutian maidenhair or Western maidenhair, is quite
well-known to anyone who has hiked through Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods
State Park,
north of Orick. This fern quite literally blankets many of the 30-foot-high
walls of the canyon,
often completely obscuring the rock.
Storre said one of the largest ferns native to
the North Coast is the giant chain fern, or Woodwardia
fimbriata.
”They are stunning, and can get six feet
tall,” Storre said. “You see them alongside creeks, places where
it's pretty much wet all the time.”
One of the most common North Coast native ferns is Blechnum spicant -- the deer fern.
”We have some other really beautiful ferns locally,” said Storre, “and one that I really like is the deer fern.”
Deer ferns grow to about three or four feet high
and, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
national plant database (plants.usda.gov), has a long lifespan. It's actually a
member of the chain fern family,
Blechnaceae, and another favorite of Kramer's, who calls it by one of its other
names.
”I also like the deer tongue fern. It has deep
green foliage, stiff fronds and a loose, airy look,” Kramer said.
“This one needs deep shade and soil similar to the adiantums.”
Another coastal native, the leatherleaf fern
(Polypodium scouleri), is a small fern that grows to only about two
feet in height. But, if you're looking down you might miss it, according to
Storre.
”The leatherleaf you'll find especially up in
Trinidad and Westhaven,” he said. “It grows along trees on the bark,
on the outside.”
Leatherleaf, with its triangular-shaped fronds,
is often used to add interest in a floral arrangement, with its
year-round availability and somewhat long vase life making it especially useful
as greenery in a colorful bouquet.
Western brackenfern, Pteridium aquilinum, comes
in several varieties and is easily recognizable, with each frond
dividing into three main parts. It's one of the ferns that may pop up in a shady
spot in one's yard without necessarily
being invited, and should be watched carefully.
”Western brackenfern can be invasive,” Kramer said, “and many parts of it are toxic.”
That toxicity pertains primarily to livestock --
cattle, horses, pigs -- and includes most parts of the brackenfern from
roots to fresh or dried leaves, fiddleheads and spores. (Fiddleheads are the new
shoots coming out that look like the
carved head of a violin.)
For home gardens, Freshwater Farms nursery
manager Cindy Pemberton said, many of the native ferns are fairly easy
to grow, as long as their watering and soil needs are considered. “Swordferns,
deer ferns grow pretty well, and
maidenhair, which needs a lot of moisture but will go dormant through the dry
spells,” she said.
There are also some non-native ferns that grow well here, with one caveat: watch out for frost.
”There are non-native ferns called tree
ferns,” Storre said. “Here's the problem: When we have real cold stretches,
maybe
every seven to 10 years, all the tree ferns die. When I was a landscaper, in the
early years, we'd have three nights of
below 32 (degrees) and they'd all die. So one thing I would suggest is on
extremely cold nights, just throw a sheet or towel
over it, so the frost won't kill the crown.”
One non-native tree fern seen frequently in local
landscaping, perhaps because of its dramatic appearance, is
Dicksonia antarctica -- the Australian treefern, sometimes called the Tasmanian
tree fern.
Besides local nurseries, another resource
Pemberton recommends is the Northcoast Environmental Center on H Street
in Arcata, which sells a pamphlet on local ferns.