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.
Hymenophyllum minimum
Hymenophyllum minimum
Hymenophyllum minimum is one of New Zealand's smallest filmy ferns, an endemic with bright green, once-pinnate fronds just 6-30 mm long.
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Hymenophyllum rarum
Hymenophyllum rarum
Hymenophyllum rarum is a small filmy fern with thin, pale greyish-green fronds 2-12 cm long that grows in creeping patches throughout New Zealand, from the coast to.
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Hymenophyllum revolutum
Hymenophyllum revolutum
Hymenophyllum revolutum is a small endemic filmy fern that forms light green turf-like patches on tree trunks, rocks, logs and mossy banks in New Zealand forest.
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Dicranopteris linearis
Dicranopteris linearis
Dicranopteris linearis is a scrambling, forking fern that, in New Zealand, grows only on geothermally heated ground.
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Hypolepis amaurorachis
Hypolepis amaurorachis
Hypolepis amaurorachis (correctly spelt amaurorhachis) is an uncommon ground fern of New Zealand's far south and outlying islands, also found in Victoria and Tasmania.
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Austroblechnum norfolkianum
Austroblechnum norfolkianum
Austroblechnum norfolkianum (now Austroblechnum norfolkianum ) is a tufted hard fern with glossy, dark to bright green, rather fleshy fronds 30 to 80 cm long, divided.
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Nephrolepis flexuosa
Nephrolepis flexuosa
Nephrolepis flexuosa is an indigenous ladder fern with narrow, once-divided fronds that grow erect at first and then droop, usually 0.2-0.8 m long.
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Lindsaea linearis
Lindsaea linearis
Lindsaea linearis is a small, tufted terrestrial fern of poor, open ground, found from Northland to Stewart Island and abundantly on the Chatham Islands.
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Lindsaea viridis
Lindsaea viridis
Lindsaea viridis is a small, bright green fern found only in New Zealand, forming solitary tufts or large patches of drooping, finely divided fronds 4 to 40 cm long on.
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Loxsoma cunninghamii
Loxsoma cunninghamii
Loxsoma ( Loxsoma cunninghamii ) is a ground fern found only in the northern North Island, from near Kaitaia to the Coromandel Peninsula, with an outlying population on.
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Macrothelypteris torresiana
Macrothelypteris torresiana
Macrothelypteris torresiana is a large, tufted, short-lived fern that can reach 2 m tall, with soft, finely divided yellow-green to blue-green fronds covered in long.
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Adiantum fulvum
Adiantum fulvum
Adiantum fulvum is an endemic maidenhair fern of New Zealand forests, forming spreading clumps of dark green, triangular to ovate fronds up to about 85 cm long on dark.
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Adiantum viridescens
Adiantum viridescens
Adiantum viridescens is the name William Colenso gave in 1895 to a New Zealand maidenhair fern whose leaf segments lack hairs underneath.
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Hypolepis lactea
Hypolepis lactea
Hypolepis lactea is an endemic New Zealand ground fern named for the white, milky, sticky exudate that coats the upper surface of its older fronds.
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Doodia milnei
Doodia milnei
Doodia milnei , now known as Blechnum kermadecense, is a rasp fern found only on Raoul and Macauley islands in the Kermadec group.
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Doodia squarrosa
Doodia squarrosa
Doodia squarrosa , now called Blechnum zeelandicum, is a tufted rasp fern endemic to New Zealand.
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Polystichum wawranum
Polystichum wawranum
Polystichum wawranum is an endemic shield fern of the northern half of the North Island, the Three Kings Islands and the Chatham Islands.
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Notogrammitis ciliata
Notogrammitis ciliata
Notogrammitis ciliata (formerly Grammitis ciliata ) is a tiny endemic strap fern whose undivided fronds, mostly 2.5-4.5 cm long, are fringed with scattered hairs along.
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Notogrammitis patagonica
Notogrammitis patagonica
Notogrammitis patagonica (formerly Grammitis patagonica ) is a small creeping strap fern of wet rock in New Zealand's mountains.
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Notogrammitis pseudociliata
Notogrammitis pseudociliata
Notogrammitis pseudociliata (formerly Grammitis pseudociliata ) is a small tufted strap fern that grows almost always on the trunks and branches of podocarp and.
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Notogrammitis rawlingsii
Notogrammitis rawlingsii
Notogrammitis rawlingsii (formerly Grammitis rawlingsii ) is an uncommon endemic strap fern of northern kauri forest.
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Notogrammitis rigida
Notogrammitis rigida
Notogrammitis rigida (formerly Grammitis rigida ) is the largest undivided strap fern in New Zealand.
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