LOVE LADDER (FERN)

LOVE LADDER – FERN

LATIN NAME: NEPHROLEPIS CORDIFOLIA

HOMELAND: SOUTHEASTERN ASIA & AUSTRALIA

Mysterious Fairy

We can say that the fern, whose Latin name Nephrolepis Cordifolia means heart-leafed liver, is one of the oldest inhabitants of Planet Earth. With around 12 thousand different species and a history dating back to around 400 million years, they continue to live in the regions they have adapted to on Earth without changing their physical shape at all except for their shorter heights.

It has been the subject of many folkloric stories, tales and mythologies, probably due to the belief that its seeds are invisible, due to the fact that it does not bloom, until the German naturalist and botanist Wilhelm Hofmeister, who is considered the Darwin of the botanical world, discovered the spores resulting from the combination of eggs and sperms that develop simultaneously in the prothallus formed on its leaves in the 19th century.

Beliefs that emerged in pagan times and became widespread in the Middle Ages and were based on the mystery of multiplying without blooming, have caused it to gain a very important place in Central European and Slavic folklore, especially in association with fairies and supernatural powers.

Since the fern, which loves moist shade, grows densely in forests, it was associated with forest fairies and was believed to carry their powers and keep evil spirits away.

Since its seeds are invisible because it does not have flowers, different beliefs have emerged based on this belief.

It was believed that a person who possessed the seeds of the fern could both become invisible and see things that normal people could not see, such as buried treasures, and even that an ointment made by mixing it with egg white could enable the blind to see.

In medieval Austrian folklore, it is believed that the fern blooms for a very short time from midnight, the shortest night of the year, June 23 to June 24, until the roosters crow in the morning, and that the person who owns this flower can attain infinite wealth.

The invisibility seeds of the fern have been the subject of many medieval writers' works, especially Shakespeare, and most recently played an important role as the plant of the fairy forest in the 1992 cartoon Fern Gully.