Tree Ferns - by Tre

    The forests of New Zealand are extremely varied, with trees from native ginkgos and red beech to towering introduced redwoods. But one tree—if you can call it that—stands out from the rest of the forest. You might first mistake it for a palm tree, but if you looked on the underside of the "leaves" you might see a rusty, reddish brown dust just waiting to spread, similar to another plant that many of you are very familiar with. If you looked at its trunk, you might notice that it seems almost porous, with a pattern on its bark that looks almost like scales. It's a very odd tree, not coniferous or deciduous. It's actually a giant prehistoric fern.

    The tree fern looks a bit like a palm tree. It has a "trunk" which is actually a modified rhizome (a sort of root) that leads up to the tree fern's head, where the trunk sprouts a bunch of fan-shaped ferns.

    While the tree fern is a plant, it's different from most other plants in that it isn't seed-bearing. Plants without seeds, like ferns and mosses, are a lot less common than their seed-bearing counterparts, and they are actually much older, too. These plants have been around since long before the dinosaurs, and they had already evolved into towering tree ferns by the time seed bearing plants were starting to show up. 

Tree ferns exist in many places around the world. My family has been lucky enough to see them in several places, but never have we seen them so ubiquitous as in New Zealand. It's fairly common to see whole hillsides or forests covered with tall, waving fronds.

The tree fern holds an important place in New Zealand's history. The Maori people have used tree ferns in different ways for more than 700 years. Two common uses were roasting the starchy pulp in the trunk for food and using the trunks to build houses. 

The rotted out inside of a tree fern's "trunk" which is actually a modified rhizome.

The silver tree fern (a species of tree fern endemic to New Zealand) has been a symbol of New Zealand's national identity since the 1880's. The Maori thought that the elegant, feathery shape of the fronds stood for strength and enduring power. Both the New Zealand military and Kiwi sports teams wear this icon as a symbol of their strength, echoing the Maori beliefs.

Tree ferns are an ancient type of plant and have been part of our history for millions of years, since before the dinosaurs. They also hold a special place in the history of New Zealand cultural history as a useful plant and a symbolic icon. Whatever place these plants hold in your heart they're still a picturesque sight and a living reminder of ancient beauty.