Fern

Earth was a very different place 350 million years ago. It was hot and humid year round; the continents that make today’s global map recognizable did not exist. Boundaries between land and water were blurred, and the Earth was covered by dense swamps. This was the age of the ferns, some as large as today’s woody trees. These plants do not produce flowers, seeds or pollen; they reproduce by spores.

Millennia after millennia, ferns germinated, grew to maturity, reproduced and then died. Their biomass sank into the swampy mud, layer after layer. After millions of years of geologic mixing, pressure and heat, the remains of fern and horsetail swamps were squeezed and transformed into coal.

There are some 20,000 different species of ferns today. The most common varieties at Descanso include (pictured below, left to right) native sword ferns (Polystichum munitum), Australian tree ferns (Cyathea cooperi) and mother ferns (Aspenium bulbiferum) from Australia. They all thrive in the shade of Descanso’s Coast Live Oak Forest.