SWORD FERN

SWORD FERN

LATIN NAME: NEPHROLEPIS CORDIFOLIA

MAIN HOMELAND: SOUTHEAST ASIA & AUSTRALIA

Mysterious Fairy

The fern, whose Latin name Nephrolepis Cordifolia means heart-leaved liver, is one of the oldest inhabitants of Planet Earth with a history dating back 400 million years. With around 12 thousand different species, they continue to live in the regions of the World they have adapted to, almost without changing their physical shape, except for their shortened stature.

Until the 19th century, German naturalist and botanist Wilhelm Hofmeister, who is considered the Darwin of the botanical world, discovered the spores that emerged from the combination of egg sand sperm developed simultaneously by the prothallus on their leaves. Although it did not bloom, perhaps due to the belief that the seeds were invisible. It has been the subject of folkloric stories, tales and mythologies.

Beliefs based on the mystery of proliferating before blooming, which emerged in pagan times and became wide spread in the Middle Ages, have ledto a very important place associated with fairies and supernatural powers, especially in Central European and Slavic folklore.

Because the fern, which likes moist shade, grows intensely in the forests, it was believed that it was associated with the forest nymphs and carried their powers and kept evils pirits away.

Based on the fact that the seeds are invisible because they do not have flowers, different beliefs have emerged depending on this belief.

It was believed that the person who owns the seeds of the fern can be invisible, see what normal people cannot see, such as buried treasures, and even an ointment made with eggwhite can help the blind to see.

In medieval Austrian folklore, it was believed that the fern bloomed for a short time between midnight, which connects the shortest night of theyear, June 23 to June 24, until the roosters crow in the morning, and that the person who owns this flower can reach endless wealth.

The seeds of the fern, which provide invisibility, have been the subject of the works of many medieval writers, especially Shakespeare, and lastly in 1992, it took an important role as the plant of the fairy forest in the cartoon called Fern Gully.