Tree Ferns

Tree ferns are a group of  plants capable of giving your garden that vibrant tropical look or equally they can provide a lush green backdrop to show off your other prized plants. Whatever your interest in tree ferns they provide an intreging  insight into what the forests of the earth looked like before flowering plants evolved millions of years ago.

Carbon dating techniques have found tree ferns can be dated back to the Jurassic period over 200 million years ago. Tree ferns are unique, instead of having a woody stem covered in a protective bark the trunks of tree ferns are composed of rhizomes modified to grow vertically and covered with a dense miss-mash of roots. These trunks may reach heights of 20 metres (65 feet) or more in species such as Cyathea brownii.

At the top of the trunk there is a growing tip which produces a cluster of often highly divided fronds that can be several metres in length. The fronds act as leaves and help the plant perform photosynthesis.