Taking Inventory: Fern

But we’re here to talk about ferns, not trailers. Ferns are found in the Overworld, growing naturally in jungle, taiga, snowy taiga, and old growth taiga biomes. They’re also sometimes sold by wandering traders, and occasionally found in taiga village chests.

Ferns don’t really do much, other than sitting there looking all pretty and lush. When you destroy one by hitting it, there’s a one-in-eight chance that you’ll get some wheat seeds, and a seven-in-eight chance that you’ll get nothing. If you destroy one by hitting it with a pair of shears, though, the fern itself will drop so you can go put it somewhere else.

Somewhere else means a block of grass, podzol, mycelium, dirt, mud, moss, or farmland, or into a flower pot where in my humble opinion they look particularly nice. Just the thing for a minimalist modern build with lots of glass and concrete. When placed on a block, you can bonemeal a fern to turn it into a large fern. But protect your fern from sheep, who’ll happily munch it down if given the opportunity.

Ferns in the real world are a group of plants containing more than 10,000 known species, some of which have been around for as long as 400 million years. They’re different from other plants in that they don’t have seeds or flowers — instead they reproduce via spores. They’re often found in moist, shady locations, like forests.

While ferns aren’t of major economic importance to humans, they are culturally interesting. They often feature in folklore, and were the subject of a late 1800s craze in Victorian England called pteridomania, where ferns were collected from all over the world, and fern patterns on other items became extremely popular. Today, they’re still a popular ornamental plant, and are the national emblem of Aotearoa New Zealand.

So next time you want a subtle accent to an empty corner in a build, or a bit of a different look to a garden, I recommend reaching for a fern. Even if it initially looks a bit small, I can promise that with a bit of bonemeal it’ll grow on you.