Adiantum formosum [Adiantaceae]; Giant MaidenhairCommonly found in wet sclerophyll forests and rainforests of the Sydney Basin, this species is a highly underrated garden plant. Its large triangular fronds are much more elegant than the well known exotic Adiantum raddianum. It’s colour is also less garish. It is a particularly deep-rooted Adiantum (or more correctly, ‘deep-rhizomed’), which makes it surprisingly drought tolerant. Having said this, it still prefers a consistently moist substrate, and will require watering in dry periods unless you can accept some browning off.
One of my favourite plant encounters of 2020 was the discovery of an enormous population of this species near Forest Path in the Royal National Park, where it appears a fire must have burnt through a section of Illawarra Escarpment Blackbutt Forest vegetation, allowing the fern to form a monoculture on the ground plane. The diaphanous cloud of fronds was punctured only occasionally by turpentines (Syncarpia glomulifera), whose burnt trunks formed a dramatic counterpoint (as seen in the image below).
