Silver Fern

The silver fern, now classified as Alsophila dealbata though long known as Cyathea dealbata, is a medium sized tree fern endemic to New Zealand, named for the silver white colour of the underside of its mature fronds. It grows a woody trunk up to twelve metres tall and can reach ten metres or more in height, with fronds as much as three metres long and one metre wide. It occurs on New Zealand's main islands, though absent from the west and south of the South Island, and also on the Chatham Islands and Lord Howe Island, thriving in the subcanopy of drier forests and open scrub on well drained soil. In Maori tradition the silver fern, or ponga, symbolises new life and growth, and its unfurling frond, the koru, appears widely in Maori art; hunters once used the pale underside of its fronds to mark a path home at night. The fern became a national symbol of New Zealand beginning with the 1888-89 rugby team's overseas tour and now appears on military insignia, sports uniforms and government emblems.