Fronds. Forest dwellers. Spores. Houseplants. Queer icons. We’ve got ferns. The charming and hilarious professor and author of “Ferns: Lessons in Survival from Earth’s Most Adaptable Plants,” Dr. Fay-Wei Li, tells me all about fern evolution, what ferns not to have in your house, the most expensive ferns, the tastiest ferns, mathematical mysteries, and a genome that makes no sense, to me or a lot of Pteridologists. Also, can Between Two Ferns save science? This episode is, in Fay-Wei’s words, “ferntastic.”

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Visit Dr. Li’s lab website and follow him on Google Scholar

Buy his book, Ferns: Lessons in Survival from Earth’s Most Adaptable Plants, on Bookshop.org or Amazon

A donation went to the ASPT Herbarium Emergency Fund

Links to things we discussed:

The Origin and Evolution of Botanical Spirals | Sandy Hetherington

Identification of a tetrahedral apical cell preserved within a fossilized fern fiddlehead

Unveiling the Mysteries: The Fibonacci Sequence and its Connection to the Koru Fern Spiral

Lady Gaga has new genus of plant named after her

Experimental Reintroduction of American Hart’s-Tongue Fern (Asplenium scolopendrium var. americanum): Factors Affecting Successful Establishment of Transplants

The significance of the silver fern

Diploid vs. Haploid: Similarities and Differences

Loved or loathed, this hanging plant on Martha Stewart’s terrace is chaotic and always 'unapologetically bold,' according to master gardeners