Alsophila alexii and the Tree Ferns of Christchurch Hospital

Of all the places I've visited in New Zealand so far in search of fern activity this has to be the most unlikely. However, while Cate my wife was in recuperation after the birth of Alex, our first (and last!) child I was left wandering the halls and corridors of this magnificent concrete monsrosity in search of food. In the end my search took me to an in-house establishment professing to sell "lunch and dinner" though on experience of it I would say that this term should be used loosely.

The upside of my game of Russian Roulette with food poisoning was the tracking down of several tree fern groves, and mighty impressive ones they were too. The most conspicuous, in fact downright obvious is this superb display of native species at the entrance.

In such a dark, cold and crappy nook that this is I think the effort that has gone into this display is first class. There is one of every common species here. Starting with Cyathea dealbata on the left, then smithii, fibrosa and a couple of medullaris. In a few years time once those meds have started trunking and the dealbata is kicking out big fronds this display will be eye watering. Hospitals are good at that aren't they!

Here's a closer look at one of the medullaris'. That's pneumatopteris pennigera in the foreground. I was surprised to see that doing well here as it likes a great deal of humidity so this microclimate must be better than it looks.

Just 100 metres away is another entrance which leads into the Women's Hospital. This entrance has a tree fern display of equal if not better prominence. The species list here is Dicksonia squarrosa and fibrosa with many Blechnum discolor dotted around the fringes. Blechnum novae-zelandiae holds the centre ground. Superb!