Everything was better in the olden days, at least from a ferns perspective.
About 400 million years ago - in the Devonian age - the overall situation was extremely fern-friendly. The climate was pleasantly muggy and warm, there was lots of space on the continental shelves (because live still happened in water mostly), and there were neither herbivores nor chainsaws around. As if they had known that it would never be so good again, the ferns used the favour of the hour. They grew up to 30 meters high, and together with giant horsetail (Equisetum) and lycopods they formed enormous swamp forests.
For 100 million years, things went extremely well – ferntastic you might say. The ferns were spreading rampantly across the globe, using the sunlight to turn carbon dioxide into more fern, only to end up on the compost heap of the Carboniferous. Under extreme pressure and over eons, former fern forests were turned into black coal from which we now try to coax out the sunlight of those days gone by. “The Age of Fern” was named after this coal “Carboniferous” (lat. carbo = coal).
For florists Carboniferous would have been a bitter disappointment, because blossoms had not been invented yet. Plants that use spores to propagate may be unattractive brushwood to decorators of vases, but for the ferns this strategy ensured over 400 million years of success on this planet. In plain English this means: one of the first plants on earth survived several ice ages, massive meteorite impacts, periods of extreme drought, more than one deluge, series of severe volcanic eruptions and even times when 98% of all species became extinct.
There are still more than 12,000 species of fern - most of them in tropical rainforests. Back in medieval times, fern was a magical plant that offered protection against demons, hail storms and strokes of lightening. People carried fern fronds as lucky charms or hung them over their doors. And if you managed to pick the fern’s golden flower you would become invulnerable, could make yourself invisible, and understand the language of the animals. Awesome!
There are verifiable medical effects, such as relief from Rheumatism, hoarseness, burns and other things. But wouldn’t it be even nicer, if this thing with the language of the animals worked? Yes it would!
Throws from this UPPERCASE Merino collection are knitted in Germany from 100% virgin wool. To be exact, it is Merino wool extrafine - the finest sheep have to offer. The soft feel in combination with the clear loop structure makes Merino wool the ideal fabric for this kind of expressive graphical design.