Introduction
Overview
New Zealand’s native ferns range from delicate groundcovers to towering tree ferns and are found from damp lowland forests to windswept alpine gullies. They play a vital role in forest structure, sheltering seedlings, stabilising slopes, and creating rich habitat for invertebrates and birds. In gardens, ferns provide year‑round texture and thrive in shaded, moist positions with good organic matter and consistent moisture.
Southern Greenhood
Pterostylis australis
Pterostylis australis , the Southern Greenhood, is a native New Zealand terrestrial orchid with a distinctive green, hooded flower.
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Hard Fern
Austroblechnum durum
Also known as Leather Fern, this hardy species features robust architectural fronds and plays an important role in New Zealand's southern maritime ecosystems.
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Alpine Hard Fern
Blechnum montanum
Blechnum montanum is an alpine/subalpine hard fern with firm fronds for cool, free-draining rock gardens and forest edges. Learn ID and cultivation.
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Delta-leaved Cranfillia
Cranfillia deltoides
This mountain hard fern produces two distinct types of fronds with delta-shaped triangular leaflets, traditionally used medicinally to treat ailments and suppress hunger.
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Creek Fern
Cranfillia fluviatilis
Cranfillia fluviatilis, also known as the Creek Fern or River Fern, is a striking NZ native fern with symmetrical, radiating fronds that thrive in damp, shaded environments.
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Slender Tree Fern
Cyathea cunninghamii
One of New Zealand's tallest and most elegant tree ferns, distinguished by its thin trunk and delicate, lacy fronds.
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Silver Fern
Cyathea dealbata
Cyathea dealbata, the Silver Fern or Ponga, is an iconic New Zealand tree fern famous for the striking silvery-white underside of its mature fronds.
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Soft Tree Fern
Cyathea smithii
Cyathea smithii, the Soft Tree Fern or Kātote, is a cold-tolerant NZ native tree fern with exceptionally soft fronds and a distinctive skirt of dead fronds around its trunk.
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Fragrant Fern
Dendroconche scandens
Dendroconche scandens, or the Fragrant Fern, is a slender climbing fern with pleasant-smelling fronds, often found growing on tree trunks or rocks in damp forest environments.
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Woolly Tree Fern
Dicksonia lanata
Distinctive native tree fern recognized by its dense coating of reddish-brown woolly hairs and its often prostrate or creeping trunk.
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Glossy Fern
Arachniodes aristata
Arachniodes aristata is a robust ground fern with long-creeping, scaly rhizomes and stiff, glossy, dark green fronds up to about 1 m long that are three to four times.
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Ladder Brake
Pteris vittata
Ladder brake or Chinese brake (Pteris vittata) is a fern with arching, once-pinnate fronds up to about 1.2 m long, each carrying 8-40 pairs of narrow, undivided pinnae.
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Staghorn Clubmoss
Palhinhaea cernua
Staghorn clubmoss (Palhinhaea cernua, formerly Palhinhaea cernua) is the largest New Zealand clubmoss, a scrambling lycophyte whose main stems loop across the ground for.
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Austral Lady Fern
Diplazium australe
Austral lady fern (Diplazium australe) is a large, soft, tufted ground fern with brittle, bright to dark green, finely divided fronds usually 0.3 to 1.4 m long.
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Matua Mauku
Hymenophyllum dilatatum
Matua mauku ( Hymenophyllum dilatatum ) is the largest of New Zealand's filmy ferns, with drooping, translucent fronds that can reach 57 cm long.
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Rusty Filmy Fern
Hymenophyllum frankliniae
Rusty filmy fern (Hymenophyllum frankliniae) is an endemic filmy fern instantly recognised by the dense covering of tawny to rusty-brown star-shaped hairs over its.
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Tufted Filmy Fern
Hymenophyllum pulcherrimum
Tufted filmy fern ( Hymenophyllum pulcherrimum ) is one of the largest and most graceful of New Zealand's filmy ferns.
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Rough Filmy Fern
Hymenophyllum scabrum
Rough filmy fern (Hymenophyllum scabrum) is a large, endemic New Zealand filmy fern with dark green to olive-green fronds up to 40 cm long, three to four times divided.
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Fine-Leaved Parsley Fern
Botrychium biforme
Fine-leaved parsley fern ( Botrychium biforme ) is an endemic New Zealand fern related to adder's-tongue ferns.
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Rough Sword Fern
Nephrolepis brownii
Rough sword fern is the Kermadec Islands ladder fern long known in New Zealand as Nephrolepis brownii .
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Milne's Tree Fern
Alsophila milnei
Milne's tree fern ( Alsophila milnei , now Alsophila milnei) is a tree fern endemic to Raoul Island in the Kermadec Islands.
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Mokimoki
Doodia mollis
Doodia mollis , recorded by NZPCN under the names mokimoki and mukimuki and now known as Blechnum molle, is a small tufted rasp fern endemic to New Zealand.
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One-Sided Filmy Fern
Hymenophyllum peltatum
One-sided filmy fern (Hymenophyllum peltatum) is a small filmy fern whose dark green, often red-tinged fronds, 2-14 cm long, carry their narrow toothed segments only on.
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Oval Wedge Fern
Lindsaea trichomanoides
Lindsaea trichomanoides , sometimes called oval wedge fern, is a small tufted ground fern with upright, oval, bright green fronds usually 7 to 44 cm long.
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Velvet Fern
Lastreopsis velutina
Velvet fern ( Lastreopsis velutina ) is a ground fern endemic to New Zealand, named for the soft, velvety feel of its fronds.
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Shiny-Leaved Spleenwort
Asplenium lamprophyllum
Shiny-leaved spleenwort (Asplenium lamprophyllum) is an endemic New Zealand ground fern with creeping, stolon-like rhizomes and thin, glossy, light green fronds that are.
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Waewaekoukou
Pseudodiphasium volubile
Waewaekoukou or climbing clubmoss (Pseudodiphasium volubile, now Pseudodiphasium volubile) is a scrambling lycophyte whose wiry, much-branched stems climb through shrubs.
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Stalked Adder's Tongue Fern
Ophioglossum petiolatum
Stalked adder's tongue fern ( Ophioglossum petiolatum ) is a small, fleshy, seasonally dormant fern that looks nothing like a typical fern.
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Shore Hard Fern
Austroblechnum banksii
Shore hard fern (Austroblechnum banksii, now known as Blechnum banksii or Austroblechnum banksii) is a small, tufted native fern that grows only near the sea, on damp.
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Miniature Tree Fern
Diploblechnum fraseri
Miniature tree fern (Diploblechnum fraseri, now Diploblechnum fraseri) is a small colony-forming fern whose erect rhizomes become slender woody trunks up to about 1.5 m.
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Black Hard Fern
Cranfillia nigra
Black hard fern ( Cranfillia nigra , now often called Cranfillia nigra) is a small endemic fern of dark, wet forest.
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Bog Clubmoss
Brownseya serpentina
Bog clubmoss (Brownseya serpentina, now often called Brownseya serpentina) is a tiny, yellow-green clubmoss that creeps flat across wet peat and clay, sending up short.
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Pygmy Clubmoss
Phylloglossum drummondii
Pygmy clubmoss (Phylloglossum drummondii) is the smallest member of New Zealand's clubmoss family, a fleshy, tufted, bright yellow-green plant only 15 to 50 mm tall that.
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Southern Comb Fern
Schizaea australis
Southern comb fern ( Schizaea australis , also treated as Microschizaea australis) is a small, tufted fern whose wiry, undivided fronds look more like a rush than a fern.
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Hairy Filmy Fern
Hymenophyllum villosum
Hairy filmy fern ( Hymenophyllum villosum ) is an endemic New Zealand filmy fern of cool, wet mountain forest and subalpine scrub.
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Giant Hypolepis
Hypolepis dicksonioides
Giant hypolepis ( Hypolepis dicksonioides ) is the largest of New Zealand's Hypolepis ground ferns, with finely divided, very sticky fronds that can exceed 2 m in length.
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Sticky Pig Fern
Hypolepis rufobarbata
Sticky pig fern ( Hypolepis rufobarbata ) is an endemic New Zealand ground fern whose name means red-bearded, after the red-brown bristly hairs on its stalks and frond.
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Prickly Rasp Fern
Doodia aspera
Prickly rasp fern ( Doodia aspera , now Blechnum neohollandicum) is a creeping, harsh-textured fern native to Australia that was once recorded in a few places in.
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Alpine Shield Fern
Polystichum cystostegia
Alpine shield fern ( Polystichum cystostegia ), also called mountain shield fern, is one of the few truly alpine ferns in New Zealand.
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Alpine Tangle Fern
Gleichenia alpina
Alpine tangle fern ( Gleichenia alpina ) is a creeping, mat-forming fern of cold, wet, open places.
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Asplenium shuttleworthianum
Asplenium shuttleworthianum
Shuttleworth's spleenwort ( Asplenium shuttleworthianum ) is a finely divided fern with yellow-green, leathery fronds 10 to 86 cm long that are two to four times pinnate.
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Cystopteris tasmanica
Cystopteris tasmanica
Bladder fern ( Cystopteris tasmanica ) is a small, delicate, deciduous fern that grows in rock crevices, under overhangs and among boulders in New Zealand's mountains.
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Pteris saxatilis
Pteris saxatilis
Pteris saxatilis is an endemic New Zealand brake fern with lacy, triangular to ovate fronds 15-70 cm long that rise from a short, erect, scaly rhizome.
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Deparia petersenii subsp. congrua
Deparia petersenii
Deparia petersenii subsp. congrua is a native ground fern that spreads by long-creeping rhizomes to form colonies of brittle, yellow-green, two- to three-pinnate fronds.
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Hymenophyllum armstrongii
Hymenophyllum armstrongii
Hymenophyllum armstrongii is one of New Zealand's smallest ferns: an endemic filmy fern whose dark green, undivided or once to three times forked fronds are just 4-32 mm.
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Hymenophyllum australe
Hymenophyllum australe
Hymenophyllum australe is a filmy fern that lives almost entirely in and beside running water.
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Hymenophyllum flexuosum
Hymenophyllum flexuosum
Hymenophyllum flexuosum is an endemic filmy fern with bright to yellow-green, finely divided fronds 7-39 cm long.
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Hymenophyllum lyallii
Hymenophyllum lyallii
Hymenophyllum lyallii is a small filmy fern with fan-shaped (flabellate) fronds just 1-9 cm long, divided into narrow forking segments whose margins carry minute teeth.
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