Deer Ferns

I absolutely love ferns and living in a rain forest we have tons of ferns. Mainly Bracken Fern and Sword Fern. A couple of other ferns which are also popular in this area but not as easy to find are Maidenhair Fern which leaves look like ginkgo and Deer Fern which looks very similar to the Sword Fern but much smaller.  I have been using all of these ferns lately in my platters.

Deer Fern (Blechnum spicant) is an interesting fern because it has two types of leaves. The sterile leaves have flat, wavy-margined leaflets 5 to 8 millimeters wide, while the fertile leaves have much narrower leaflets, each with two thick rows of sori (spores) on the underside.

In the two photos below (click on the photos for a closer view), the fertile leaves at the upright leaves in the photo on the left.  You can see the difference on the square platter on the left.  The sterile leaves are the flatter leaves at the bottom of the plant as seen in the platter on the right.  There aren't too many deer fern where I have found them so I was careful to only pick a few of the fertile leaves otherwise they will not have a chance to reproduce.