All my life, a little pocket of native maidenhair fern has been growing on the corner of a high bank that sweeps around below the house on our property. It has not spread and changed little in all those years. It has survived droughts, floods - what ever has been thrown at it in fact. I measured it today. It occupies a pocket about 15 steps long and about arms width wide facing east a little down from the top and about 10 -12 feet above the base of the bank. I love looking at it. Its permanency fascinates me. My Mum told me it was always there and that makes it 90 years since she first saw it. I wonder how old this little pocket really is?
How interesting Margaret that this little patch has neither grown bigger yet never died, you would have thought its size would have altered a little bit over the years. I like maiden hair Fern, its delicate looking yet must be stronger than it looks!
@koalagardens@happypat they are very delicate and pretty. I love the jet black stem. They are said to be like Lazarus and can rise from the dead when the right conditions return.