Blanket Fern - native (Pleurosorus rutifolius)

Family: Aspleniaceae

Native of Australia and New Zealand.

Moderately common, usually growing in the shelter of rocks.

Recognise:

• it has fan-shaped fronds in irregular pairs
• the leaves and stalks are covered in fine reddish-brown hairs
• the spores are in radiating lines along the veins on the underside of the fronds.

The habitat is similar to that of Necklace Fern. Blanket Fern has more deeply toothed fronds, and the fronds and stalks are hairy. It is also a darker green.

Pleuro = side and sorus = heap, referring to the spores along the veins on the underside of the fronds; rutifolius = wrinkled leaves.