Most likely you too have encountered a fern in the forest. Some plant lovers fall in love with these delicate plants and want to plant them in their own garden. But can such a fern simply be dug out of the forest?
The spleen fern is under nature protection
Protected fern species
There are a number of fern species that are protected in Germany. These include, above all, many shield fern species and spleen fern species. Here are the specimens that are considered protected:
- Lobed Shield Fern
- Delicate shield fern
- Lance Shield Fern
- awned shield fern
- Azores Spleenwort
- spleen fern
- Serpentine Spleenwort
- Jurassic Spleenwort
- Foresian Spleenwort
- Lance-leaved spleenwort
- Curled scroll fern
- comb fern
- Mountain Bladder Fern
- Sudeten bladder fern
- eyelash ferns
In addition to these ferns, which are usually rarely found in our latitudes, there are the royal fern and stag's tongue fern, which are also considered protected. They can be found more frequently and prefer to grow in sparse forests. You are not allowed to dig up the roots of any of the species mentioned and take them home with you, for example.
Strictly protected fern species
There are also fern species that are on the red list of endangered plants by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. These are considered 'strictly protected' and from them not a single part of the plant may be collected or damaged:
- Branch Rue Fern
- skin fern
- Multipartite rue fern
Recognize a fern
Identifying ferns is not difficult, but identifying them by species is very difficult. All ferns belong to the vascular spore plants. They are divided into roots, stems and leaves. There are deciduous, wintergreen and evergreen species, although the evergreen species in this country are not hardy.
Most ferns have feathery fronds. They unfurl in a snail-like form when they sprout. On their underside are the spores, which mature in summer and are used for reproduction. Ferns do not form flowers, fruits or seeds.
tips and tricks
As a layman, it is difficult to distinguish or identify different types of ferns in the wild. You should therefore refrain from picking or digging up ferns right away. Otherwise you have to reckon with bad luck with a large fine.