Ferns are interesting

My husband and I went out this afternoon to take photographs but it just rained and we gave up and went to the pub. All this rain is making the ferns look very lush though.

Ferns have been around since the carboniferous period, about 350 million years ago, in other words, since the time of the Arthur's Seat volcano.
Coal is made primarily of ferns and fossilised specimens can still occasionally be found in coal. I have never found one though. :-(
They used to grow much bigger than this, up to 25m. Nowadays the biggest tree ferns grow to about 5m.
A clue to their durability lies in the toughness of their spores. Spores have been found over the Atlantic at a height of 31, 000ft!

All information courtesy of my other half, who also informs me that he used to find fern fossils in coal all the time.