4" Fern, Button

Cute little Button Fern, another of the Pteris brake ferns, is not how you'd picture a fern. It's kind of a mop of gently arcing fronds made up of lustrous, deepest green, leathery round dots for leaves, alternately but closely spaced on hairy, rusty red wires for stems. Each dot has little raised dots evenly spaced all the way around the edge; each little raised dot is where the spores will form on the backs of the leaves, when it's feeling frisky.  Some fronds will pair off their dots together on the stems for some reason only known to themselves. As the stems gently arc downwards, they can get just long enough to actually trail and are really nice hanging plants, especially pretty in a white or light colored macrame and pot. A little more happy than most ferns in medium light, Button is pretty forgiving, even able to resprout the dots on the stems if you forget a watering and the leaves disappear. Button is really cute in a terrarium, staying low growing and so easy to trim for any size.