Resurrection Fern Two

Above is one of 2 groups of Fishtail Palms, below is another group a few feet away.

We bought 2 5-foot-tall plants 38 years ago, the nursery guy said about 20 feet tall, HAA!

They grew to 40 feet, and each one turned to 5 or 6 trees. Beautiful Yes, Pest, yes. 

I divided the photos because there was no way to back off far enough to get the entire tree in one photo.  I left the middle out, just top and bottom.

The day I found it

This second group of palms is the home of the Resurrection Fern above, seen in  prior post , and lives on the base of the fishtail palm.

Dead because no rain for 4 days.

Back to life the Day after Hurricane Idalia gave us 3 inches of rain.

Magic! on Nature Friday with Rosy at Adventures of LLB Gang

 

Resurrection Fern Resurrected

I spied the above fern, attached to our fishtail palm and got so excited I yelled for Bob to come look what I found. He came, he saw and said so what about it?  I said it's a resurrection fern. The birds must have brought it, we have never had one here. How long has it been there, I never noticed, the rain made it come alive.

He said that is not a resurrection fern. 

I pushed down on the center of the photo and googled searched just to PROVE it!

I have many photos of these ferns on my blog, they only live when it rains, no rain they are dead and ugly but when it rains, they come alive. They are on most large trees but never ours.

Please time travel to a 2009 post to find out about these amazing ferns. 

We had 3 rains, 5 minutes each in the past 2 days. Thank you, Lord!

  Follow this link Back to the past, Redux 2009 Resurrection Ferns. click HERE and leave comment THERE. or here, doesn't matter. 

Resurrection Fern

Resurrection fern is growing on the bottom of our fishtail palm, I found it a week ago, and took the photo and waited for it to rain. The fern dies 2 or 3  days after it rains and comes back to life the next time it rains. I tried pouring rain water from the barrel on it, and it did nothing.

We had 1/2 inch of rain and it resurrected to it's normal self.

To see how it grows in the wild on Oak trees go to my past post Resurrection Ferns at Emerson Point.

Rain brings beauty, and life, but is also brings FROGS that sound like many screen doors opening and closing. And they only SING at night.

Frogs do the same thing the fern does, they dig a hole, hibernate and wait for the rain, and they come out and sing and make babies.

Under the Boardwalk... or NOT

Emerson Point Preserve is known for its trees, trees that have been there for hundreds of years. On top of the Indian Mound, are the most beautiful.
Come with me, take a deeeeppp breath, you might need it.

Hope you have your hiking boots on

Here we go, up, up and up

Breathe

Breathe

Keep breathing

there, I told you it was worth it, there are about 20 of these trees and they are full of Resurrection fern. At the top of the mound we look up at the trees and down on the trees and have a 360 degree view of Old and beautiful trees, acres of them. the boardwalk is built around the  trees and has many spots to sit and stare.

Note: Bring Bug Spray

Resurrection fern, dies and gets dead and ugly if there is no rain for 2 days, but after the rain, this is what it does. Above was a piece that had fallen to the ground. it is a 5000 dollar fine to remove Anything from the park, and that includes this tempting little morsel.

Resurrection Fern

Did I hear someone say enough already with the trees? this is not JUST trees but what grows on them.
If you click on this picture, you can see the dead ferns on the end of the limb.

This is what it looks like after it rains.

Up close shot of a piece of it after the rain. The fern is an air plant, which means it attaches itself to other plants and gets its nutrients from the air and from water and nutrients that collect on the outer surface of bark. This tiny plant has even been taken on a space shuttle mission to watch it resurrect itself in space!

The resurrection fern gets its name because it can survive long periods of drought by curling up and appearing dead. When just a little water is present, the fern will uncurl and reopen, appearing to resurrect. This process is repeated. 2 days after the rain, it looks dead, next rain it turns green.

This fern is a sister to the spanish moss in a previous post. Both live on air, attach to trees and blow through the air to move to other host trees. The difference is this one, changes with the weather.

Resurrection fern is a fascinating plant very common in the Southeast and found from Florida to New York and west to Texas.

What better day to post the Resurrection Fern, than Sunday?

I leave you with this verse for the day

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (New International Version)