Forest of bird's-nest ferns

Image
Date 25.07.2023
Size 40x30 cm
Latin name Asplenium nidus
Materials Canvas on cardboard, acrylic

Asplenium nidus is probably the largest of the local epiphytic ferns. Collecting organic matter in their leaf rosettes, these plants form a substrate and grow up together with the tree to which they are attached, building up a huge living mass that resembles a large bird's nest.

In the Mossy Forest, this is a typical scene: the trunks of slender trees are literally ringed with green settlers or dotted with black-brown hummocks of roots and green rosettes on different tiers. The most impressive are the "bird's nests" on vines, which are less common than ferns on large trees. Often, after the storm and rainy season, we discover that the very fantastical place with ferns, as if "hovering" on thin vines reaching into the tops of trees, has already disappeared. The living mass, nourished by rainwater and having given abundant growth, becomes the cause of the disappearance of the hanging gardens, collapsing downward. Every time we find such a place, we marvel at the powerful beauty of this multi-level system and the fragile balance that can last for years and collapse in an instant.