Latest Fern Stories
Canterbury University's super- computer ran at a $660,000 loss in its first year but was still a sound investment, acting Vice- Chancellor Ian Town says. University council members voted to buy an IBM Blue Gene super- computer in July last year at a cost of more than $5 million over a five-year lease-to-own deal. Their decision was based on a business case from consulting firm Deloitte, which predicted the computer, dubbed Blue Fern, would bring in external revenue of $852,000 during...
TOLEDO BEND RESERVOIR, Texas -- One biologist compares the persistent green weed to "The Blob," the title character in the 1950s sci-fi classic flick that grows and grows and consumes everything in its path. Other scientists describe the plant as looking like little heads of lettuce or squished green grapes. Then they use terms like noxious, invasive and just plain scary. Even the species name sounds sinister: salvinia molesta. No one has anything good to say about what's more...
Latest Fern Reference Libraries
The Black Tree Fern (Cyathea medullaris), is a species of evergreen tree fern endemic to New Zealand. New Zealand forest is evergreen due to the mild climate. Groups of lightly interspersed black tree ferns are common sights and very prominent on the rather steep but overgrown slopes of the North Island volcanic landscape. This fern is found to grow to heights of 65 feet, making it the largest tree fern. It may have been named because the stalk of each mature frond is black with a rather...
The Hawaiian Tree Fern or Male Tree Fern (Cibotium menziesii), is a species of tree fern, of the genus Cibotium which is endemic to the islands of Hawaii, and is found on all the windward Hawaiian islands. The habitat of this species is damp forest areas, usually at elevations varying between 1,000 and 6,000 feet. They can grown on the ground or epiphytically, growing on trees. It is also very adaptable and can withstand cool winter temperatures. These ferns can grow up to 35 feet tall but...
Giant Salvinia (Salvinia molesta), also known as kariba weed after it infested a large portion of the reservoir of the same name, is an aquatic fern, native to south-eastern Brazil. It is a free floating plant that does not attach to the soil, but instead remains buoyant on the surface of a body of water. The fronds are .25 to 1.5 inches long and broad, with a bristly surface, and produced in pairs also with a third modified root-like frond that hangs in the water. This is an example of an...
The Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis), is a species of Osmunda, native to Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, growing in woodland bogs. The species is sometimes known as flowering fern due to the appearance of its fertile fronds. The name derives from its being one of the largest and most imposing European ferns. In many areas, it has become rare as a result of wetland drainage for agriculture. It is a deciduous herbaceous plant which produces separate fertile and sterile fronds. The...
The Interrupted Fern (Osmunda claytoniana), is a fern native to eastern North America and eastern Asia. In eastern North America it occurs from southern Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec (up to the tree line), east to Newfoundland and south through the Appalachian mountains down to Georgia and west to the Mississippi River. In Asia, it is found in the Himalaya, southern China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. It is found in humid zones, mostly in forests, but also in more open biomes, although rarely in...
