FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

This is a Pteris cretica, or Cretan brake fern. It's native to Asia, Europe, and Africa. It's not especially unusual, but the circumstances in which I got it are weird. I live in central AZ and I was out collecting some wild mosses a couple of years ago. I put the mosses in a pot where they are doing pretty good, and this past spring this fern started sprouting. There are no houses or nurseries anywhere near where I harvested the moss. I can't imagine how the spores got there, but with daily misting it's thriving as an indoor plant.

Ferns do seem to get around. What surprised me about this one is that they're not native to AZ (or the US) and there are very few species of ferns in my area. The length of time (>1 year) from when I gathered the wild moss and the sprouting of the fern is another oddity.