I don’t know if I’ve mentioned previously how much I love, love, love ferns. They’re a significant part of my fascination with the Pacific Northwest. While we do have ferns here in New Mexico, mostly in the northern forests, they’re quite modest compared to those in the PNW.1
The photo above shows a bracken fern shadow on a fallen log in Del Norte State Park (California). I believe the fern below is a sword fern; its many colors signal its approaching death. I’m obsessed with colorful ferns like this one, which I found in Ecola State Park (Oregon). That’s yet another reason I like Ecola State Park so much — it seems to have a larger-than-usual proportion of colorful ferns.
The delicate white flowers below, coast Boykinia I think, were growing up through some deer ferns in Prairie Creek State Park (California).2
It’s often challenging to get close-up pictures of ferns completely in focus, so I usually check my photos immediately after taking them. I was in Ecola State Park last summer when I realized there was a tiny critter hanging out on the leaves of a fern. I definitely hadn’t seen it with my eyes, or even while looking through my camera, but once I knew it was there, I wanted a decent shot of it.
You might notice that, in the photo above, the critter’s legs are so long that they all continue outside the frame of the image. I counted eight of them, which I thought made my new little friend a spider of some sort. I was wrong, as it turned out.
It’s generically called a harvestman, part of the Nelima genus, and I think the species is Nelima paessleri. I learned that it’s a member of the arachnid family, which has numerous orders, only one of which includes true spiders. I was completely blown away when I found out that daddy long legs, critters I’ve seen all my life, are also harvestmen, not spiders. Who knew?3
I saw the tip of a sword fern perfectly nestled between two tiny hedge nettle blossoms and loved the mix of two very different species (above, Ecola State Park). I’m 100% fascinated by fern spores, so I couldn’t pass up taking a few macro shots of the backlit sword ferns below (Jed Smith State Park in California).
Here’s one more look at a colorful sword fern in — where else? — Ecola State Park. Its wide variety of patterns make it one of my all-time favorites.
I’ve included ferns from the three northernmost coast redwood parks in California because the area is apparently considered to be part of the Pacific Northwest, at least by the folks who live there. Besides, the ferns in the redwoods are so beautiful I couldn’t not include them.
Now is as good a time as any to remind you that I’m far from being an expert in species identification. Please take all my IDs with a grain of salt.
This harvestman introduced me to a whole new world I’d never realized existed. Arachnids include ticks, mites, scorpions and, of course, spiders. You can learn more here.
Beautiful! First time ever seeing multicolor ferns!
PS the last colorful fern is awesome!