I have a soft spot for ....ferns

Remember the day I decided to start that new category ? ("I have a soft spot for ...") Yeah, right, it didn't go much further than the first post I suppose ! But here I am, and have decided to go on with that category ! Today I'll share sweet & fab Etsy finds about our beloved ferns, aka Pteridophyta.

| random facts about ferns |

Ferns do not have either seeds or flowers (they reproduce via spores).

The stereotypic image of ferns growing in moist shady woodland nooks is far from being a complete picture of the habitats where ferns can be found growing. Fern species live in a wide variety of habitats, from remote mountain elevations, to dry desert rock faces, to bodies of water or in open fields.

Many ferns depend on associations with mycorrhizal fungi. Many ferns only grow within specific pH ranges.

Ferns first appear in the fossil record in the early-Carboniferous period.

Ferns are not as important economically as seed plants but have considerable importance. Some ferns are used for food, including the fiddleheads of bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris, and cinnamon fern, Osmunda cinnamomea. Diplazium esculentum is also used by some tropical peoples as food.

Ferns have been studied and found to be useful in the removal of heavy metals, especially arsenic, from the soil.

Ferns figure in folklore, for example in legends about mythical flowers or seeds. In Slavic folklore, ferns are believed to bloom once a year, during the Ivan Kupala night. Although alleged to be exceedingly difficult to find, anyone who sees a "fern flower" is thought to be guaranteed to be happy and rich for the rest of their life. Similarly, Finnish tradition holds that one who finds the "seed" of a fern in bloom on Midsummer night will, by possession of it, be guided and be able to travel invisibly to the locations where eternally blazing Will o' the wisps called aarnivalkea mark the spot of hidden treasure. These spots are protected by a spell which prevents anyone but the fern-seed holder from ever knowing their locations.

Pteridomania is a term for the Victorian era craze of fern collecting and fern motifs in decorative art including pottery, glass, metals, textiles, wood, printed paper, and sculpture "appearing on everything from christening presents to gravestones and memorials." The fashion for growing ferns indoors led to the development of the Wardian case, a glazed cabinet that would exclude air pollutants and maintain the necessary humidity.

Ferns are sometimes used in medicine to treat cuts and clean them out. Ferns are also good bandages if you are stuck out in the wild. Rubbing a sword fern frond spore-side-down on a stinging nettle sting removes the stinging.

(source : http://en.wikipedia.org)

Now, onto the Etsy finds ...

by Photosynthesis, USA


by Skoonberg, USA


by Firewoodfurniture, USA


by Willywaw, USA


by The Black Apple, USA


by Red Wren Designs, Tasmania


by Cat Tingles, The Netherlands


by Country Life Naturals, USA

Have a great start of the week !
oxox

Sonia