Far away from home

A cold day today - it was slightly frosty overnight, though when I got in from the Photo Club last night it had turned breezy and cloudy and I didn't think it necessary to cover two of my special plants. They look OK today.

I haven't been beyond the garden today - my hip is playing up and I'm hoping it's just a temporary thing and not the beginning of trouble. Another plant Blip therefore.

This fern - no, it's not bracken! - is what's always been known as Blechnum cycadifolium. Until the taxonomists got hold of it, that is. It's now to be known as Lomariocycas cycadifolia for some reason. It's a native of what used to be called Más a Tierra, the second largest of the Juan Fernandes archipelago, 400 miles off mainland Chile.  Sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned here between 1704 and 1709 and was the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's famous novel, Robinson Crusoe. Copying the taxonomists, the Chilean government decided, in 1966, to rename it Robinson Crusoe Island in order, it's assumed, to attract tourists! 

Anyway this fern is pretty hardy and my four plants were given to me as small sporelings by my late friend Jamie Taggart. One day they'll be big enough to be planted out on the bank!