Silver Fern

Lore & Background

In traditional Māori culture, ponga is seen as a symbol of new life and growth. Ponga trunks were often used in the construction of whare, walls and palisades. The koru symbol, which depicts the shape of an unfurling silver fern frond, is found extensively in Māori art, including in designs of carvings, marae and tā moko. Pūrākau (traditional stories) involve the silver fern once living in the sea, and that hunters at night time would use the white underside of fern fronds to mark a path home in the darkness, as the undersides could easily catch moonlight.

Reader's Guide

The silver fern grows to heights of 10 metres (33 ft) or more, with a dense crown and mature fronds up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) long and 1 m (3 ft 3 in) wide, silver-white on the undersides. It occurs on the main islands of New Zealand—though absent from the west and south regions of the South Island—on the Chatham Islands, and is also native to Lord Howe Island. It has naturalised in Ireland. Its primary habitat is subcanopy areas of drier forests and open scrub. It grows well in well-drained humus, tolerates drier conditions once established, and should be sheltered from wind and frost.

Did You Know?

• The Māori word ponga is a term used across Polynesian languages to describe tree ferns, such as Sphaeropteris lunulata in Tongan and Samoan or Angiopteris evecta in Samoan.
• The silver fern was first formally described in 1786 by German naturalist Georg Forster as Polypodium dealbatum.
• The silver fern has been used as a symbol by New Zealand national sports teams since the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team tour of Britain.