Brownish black, irregularly shaped spots on your fern’s foliage that are close to the crown or at the top indicate an infection. The spots are caused by wet rot, and spread quickly during warm, wet conditions. Eventually, webbing of the fungus begins to form from frond to frond.

When attempting to identify a fern, its important to look closely at one of the fronds, to turn it over and look at its underside for reproductive structures, and also to examine the frond’s stalk making note of its color and texture.

These neat clusters of dots on the backs of fern foliage are spores, and it is the method by which ferns reproduce. So these dots are a good thing – they tell you that your fern is happy, and virile!

Answer: Those brown spots are the reproductive spores of the ferns. They can be harvested and used to start new ferns indoors, or just allow them to fall naturally and see what happens. In either case, they are not harmful to your plants.

Bracken fern is widely dispersed throughout North America with most poisoning occurring in the North Western States. Horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and humans.

Bracken fern is a delicacy consumed by humans and serves as animal forage around the world. It is said to be the 5th most common plant, an important toxic plant and the only higher plant known to cause cancer in animals.

We’ve broken them down into groups, ranging from zero to high risk for your dog. Plants with zero risk to dogs: Ferns (the exception is the Asparagus fern which is toxic to dogs) Mother-in-law’s Tongue or Snakeplant (Sanseveria)

It said to be among the best in air purifying houseplants. On the other hand, these ferns are known to be non-toxic, so it is safe to grow them around kids and pets.

The good news is tuber ladder fern is easy to kill. “Simply dig it out, removing all the tubers,” says Holly Cox, Senior Biosecurity Advisor for Plants. “Put tubers and runners in landfill or green waste. You can leave other material on site to rot down, or put it in green waste.

It takes six months to get a plant large enough to transplant outside. The other way is to dig up a large, mature fern in spring and divide it into smaller sections. Dividing the plant gives nearly instant results with plants that will grow quickly.

Nephrolepis flexuosa-native ladder fern.

Nephrolepis cordifolia, or sword fern, is a plant that was introduced most likely for its ornamental attributes. Now considered a Category I invasive species, sword fern has made its presence known and continues to spread across Florida.

Research gave me two Latin names. Nephrolepis auriculata and Nephrolepis cordifolia, are synonyms for this fern. The plants don’t produce any flowers. They spread by way of underground tubers and, reproductive spoors under the leafs.