The Hen & Chicken Fern is very popular, both as an indoor and an outdoor plant. It’s long, delicate looking fronds are easily recognizable by the small bulbils which develop on the upper surface of the fronds. These can be replanted to produce more plants.
The fern also produces spore on the underside of the fronds and so it has a double assurance which is a very unusual for a fern to be able to have this double-barrelled guarantee.
This variety is best suited to damp, shady areas – but can adapt to a wide range of situations and is very suitable as an indoor pot plant.
There are different mutations of the hen and chicken fern, the naturally occuring bush variety gets a name pikopiko due to the young edible shoots it produces - becoming increasingly popular as a speciality NZ delicacy. However you would need a good number of plants (grow in shade) to produce a feed of pikopiko.