Arts and Crafts Botanical Tiles

We steal as in a castle, cocksure; we have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible.

Nay, by my faith, I think you are more beholding to the night than to fern-seed for your walking invisible.

~Shakespeare, Henry IV Part 1, Act II, Scene i.

California and Pacific Northwest Ferns

These ceramic tiles of ferns are based on the botanical watercolors done by Albert Robert Valentien between 1898 and 1918. There are eight.

Ferns in Folklore

Ferns are said to be among the most magical of plants. In folklore, fern seeds were believed to convey invincibility, should one have the luck and skill to collect them: Their gifts are invisibility, love, chastity, and protection from evil, and unlocking doors that would otherwise be closed. The "wish seeds" of ferns break free in the dead of night, attracting good fortune to whomever finds them.

Note: Ferns to do not propogate by seeds, but by spores that are invisible to the naked eye. Fern spores are single-cells with a very tough external wall.

Five-Finger Maidenhair Fern

The Five-Finger Maidenhair,a cold-climate fern, grows abundantly on damp forest floors and cliffs in northern California, the Northwest, and across the Rocky mountains. In maidenhairs, the spore-bearing tissues lie beneath the rolled-under edges of the fan-shaped leaflets.

Coastal Wood Fern

The Coastal Wood Fern is a large plant with somewhat leathery, deep green leaves that are 1 to 2.5 feet long. The leaves are in the form of a feather, with leaflets arranged along each side of a central stalk.

Giant Chain Fern

Fronds of the Giant Chain Fern can reach as high as nine feet. It is found only near streams, seeps, and springs. The indigenous peoples of California used it for thatching and basket weaving.

Coastal Coffee Fern

The Coffee Fern gets its name from its leaves, which are about the same size as coffee beans. It has leathery leaves and favors dry, rocky canyons from the northern coast of California into Baja.

California Polypody

California Polypody is found in the lush fern banks on shaded canyons and streamsides. The leaves curl and break off at the base in anticipation of seasonal rains. Its knotty extremities on the rhizomes are its "many feet", hence the name Polypodium Californicum.

Silverback Fern

Silverback Ferns grow in rock crevices or in dry soil in Woodland areas (Pentagramma Triangularis).

Gridscale Maiden Fern

Gridscale Maiden Vern

The Gridscale Maiden Fern. Maybe. Thelypteris Patens var. Patens, though found and painted by Valentien on his travels through California and the Northwest, has since been removed from the CalFlora index and is listed as "not native". Perhaps it was misidentified. This painting, however, is of the plant he found.

Western Sword Fern

The petioles (leaf-steps) of the Western Sword Fern are densely scaly and its leaves, sword-like. New leaves appear from the crown in spring as little curled frods that later unfurl upward.

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