Ferns: the houseplants that reveal how tropical rainforests are responding to climate change

By Sven Batke, Lecturer in Biology, Edge Hill University

Ferns are at their most diverse and abundant in the world’s tropical rainforests. This warm and humid ecosystem is heaven for these plants, which unfurl their fan-like leaves in the damp and shaded understory. So how did they ever come to colonise British living rooms?

If you have a potted fern at home, your choice of household companion may have something to do with the Victorians. Pteridomania (pterido meaning fern in Latin) seized Britain in the 19th century, as people competed to cultivate ferns at home and in specialised greenhouses.

Only 70 species of fern…

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