West Lynn tree ferns

I will start with an apology, in case it is needed. I took this picture without permission of the owners of this property, as I saw no one. I did not physically enter their property.

I had an early start and a short run (finishing before dawn) because of very early meeting. Did get some pictures while on my run, although none was of trees, which is this weeks challenge.

When I walked to a local cafe to buy a sandwich for lunch, I went past this property, adjacent to which (where I was standing when taking the shot) is a vacant bit of ground, other than weeds and long grass. It is vacan following the demolition of the building that was on this site, and had with one wall provided one side of the enclosed front yard featured here.

I spotted the two 'ponga', which I had decided I wanted to show on blipfoto during this week. So I got the Pentax and took this shot. Because of the grey wet day, the image has had some post camera adjustments made to exposure, brightness, shadow and definition.

New Zealand has a lot of ferns, and also quite a number of tree ferns, generically known by many New Zealanders as 'ponga'. In fact, the ponga is the Silver Fern, a well established symbol of New Zealand. It is used by many national sports teams; rugby (the All Blacks), athletics, netball (the Silver Ferns) to name just three.

The silver fern has a silvery white underneath to the fronds, which is very distinctive. The tallest tree fern is the mamaku, at 20 m when fully grown. Most common in gardens is the wheki, which grows in groves in lowland and coastal areas. It is very hardy and is commonly used in garden landscaping.

Two of its characteristics are the dense furry koru (the frond before it unfurls) and the skirt of brown, dead fronds below the crown. The koru is used by Air New Zealand as its symbol. Trunks of wheki are used as edging or to retain soil in gardens, and not infrequently, a new tree sprouts from the apparently dead trunk. That happened for us in the past when we still had a garden in the city.

These two healthy specimens are great examples of tree fern, wheki to my untutored eye, and part of what is a great native planted front yard. my shot is taken between two cabbage tree trunks, on one of which can be seen new growth.