Koru

Ferns are mostly a tropical group, and New Zealand has an unusually high number of species for a temperate country. We have about 200 species, ranging from ten-metre-high tree ferns to filmy ferns just 20 millimetres long. About 40 per cent of these species occur nowhere else in the world.

The leaves of ferns are called fronds and when they are young they are tightly coiled into a tight spiral. This shape, called a ‘koru’ in Māori, is a popular motif in many New Zealand designs, symbolising new life.