If you're interested in news and tips about New Zealand ferns, and you're on Facebook, I'm going to have a go at coordinating a Facebook page - it's called "New Zealand Ferns": https://www.facebook.com/nzferns/

For help with identifications, please add your observations to the NatureWatch project "Ferns in NZ": https://inaturalist.nz/projects/ferns-in-nz Feel free to ping me with @leonperrie in a comment on an observation you'd like help with - that will get my attention.

The "Ferns with Te Papa 2015" project in NatureWatch is closed, and I'm not actively monitoring it.

The “Ferns with Te Papa” project ran in conjunction with the exhibition “DeCLASSIFIED! Nature’s secrets exposed at Te Papa”, 8 December 2014 – 18 November 2015.

Thanks very much for the great participation: over 2000 observations of more than 200 species. We've certainly got a lot more data for understanding New Zealand's ferns and lycophytes.

From now, I will not be checking this project regularly, but I will still try to put names on as many New Zealand fern and lycophyte observations as I can.

If you have a observation that you would like me to comment on specifically, please either tag it with @leonperrie in the comments or send the link to leonperrie via NatureWatch’s messages.

The DeCLASSIFIED! exhibition's webpage: www.tepapa.govt.nz/declassified

1) I'm away from the internet for the next three weeks, and I won't be able to make identifications for the "Ferns with Te Papa" project until I return - my apologies. However, don't let that deter you from adding observations to the project. You'll likely get an identification from someone else in the meantime, and I'll catch up with recent additions when I'm back. (I'm off looking for ferns in the Solomon Islands!)

2) Another batch of images from the "Spiders with Te Papa" and "Ferns with Te Papa" NatureWatch projects has gone on display at Te Papa as part of the "DeCLASSIFIED!" exhibition. If this includes one of your images, you will have got a notification from me yesterday.

They've also been added to the exhibition's Facebook page, where you'll find all images that have featured at some point in the exhibition: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153408973441777.1073741902.58511591776&type=1
Thank you to all of the contributors.

If you're wondering why we haven't displayed any of your contributed images, it is most probably because of the licencing for your images. We can only use images made available through NatureWatch with CC licences. (You can alter the licencing of your images under your Profile.)

I’ve just put another batch of photos from the “Spiders with Te Papa” and “Ferns with Te Papa” projects into the “DeCLASSIFIED!: Nature’s secrets exposed at Te Papa” exhibition.

If you’re on Facebook, you can find all of the images that have been shown as part of the exhibition here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153408973441777.1073741902.58511591776&type=1

Thanks very much to all those who have contributed!

Just a reminder that we can only put images into the exhibition that have a Creative Commons licence (e.g., CC BY-NC). Images with “All rights reserved” are ruled out.

As long as licencing allows, we are trying to include in the exhibition the photos from as many contributors as possible . This includes schools and early childhood centres, so please encourage them to get involved; see: http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2015/03/24/spider-citizen-science-for-schools-and-early-childhood-centres/

Treatments for six more fern families are now freely available online as part of the electronic Flora of New Zealand.
The most useful for your "Ferns with Te Papa" contributions are likely to be the Dicksoniaceae hairy tree ferns and Psilotaceae fork ferns (which includes Tmesipteris).
Identification guides, colour photos, and verified maps all included.
More details here: http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2015/03/16/new-flora-treatments-online-including-hairy-tree-ferns-and-fork-ferns/

What do you think are the five most recorded species in the "Ferns with Te Papa" project?

Have a guess and that check out: http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2015/03/03/citizen-science-update-the-ferns-found-so-far/

There are, in the observations made during the last three months, some surprising absences. Perhaps you could find and add the following:
Tmesipteris tannensis
Gleichenia microphylla
Hymenophyllum multifidum
Dicksonia fibrosa
Diplazium australe
Lastreopsis microsora
Polystichum wawranum
Arthropteris tenella
Blechnum blechnoides
Blechnum nigrum...

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the "Ferns with Te Papa" project. Already over 420 observations of more than 60 taxa. That's about the number of species I'd expect to find in a good ferny site!

Considering just the observations made since the project started in early December 2014, we have 31 different species. The most popular? Asplenium flaccidum and Microsorum pustulatum, with 5 observations each.

Over the course of 2015, I'm hoping we can push the number of species over 150!

I'm about to go on holiday, until 15th January, but please keep adding observations. I'll attend to them when I return.

Finally, the DeCLASSIFIED! exhibition and its accompanying citizen science projects of "Ferns with Te Papa" and "Spiders with Te Papa" might be in the news in the next few days - look out for it! And please spread the word about these projects to family and friends - we're keen to grow the number of NatureWatch users and see what spiders and ferns they can find.

If you're in the "Ferns with Te Papa" project, you've evidently already being inspired to discover. Which is great.

However, if you know anyone in need of inspiration, please share this video with them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq4M2YRDe9c

This video, called "Inspired to Discover", is part of the DeCLASSIFIED! exhibition now open at Te Papa. As well as showcasing Te Papa's science discoveries, the exhibition hopes to inspire visitors to make their own discoveries.

The video has Te Papa scientists talking about making discoveries.

The video finishes by asking viewers to participate in citizen science, by making and sharing their own discoveries (on NatureWatch!). Included are a few shots of NatureWatch in action.

The "Ferns with Te Papa" project is being run in conjunction with the exhibition "DeCLASSIFIED! Nature's secrets exposed at Te Papa".

The exhibition showcases some of the recent discoveries by scientists at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Included are new species and newly documented relationships and behaviours.

The exhibition also seeks to inspire others to make and share their discoveries. This is being done using the citizen science website NatureWatch NZ.

Te Papa is particularly interested in your observations of ferns and spiders for the citizen science programme running alongside the "DeCLASSIFIED!" exhibition.

If you place your fern and spider photos into the "Ferns with Te Papa" and "Spiders with Te Papa" projects, a Te Papa expert will help you with the identification.

Besides feeling good about helping with the scientific documentation of New Zealand's biodiversity, there is also a chance your photo will be shown as part of the exhibition! And, who knows, perhaps you'll help find a new species.

For more on the exhibition, see: www.tepapa.govt.nz/declassified

For hints on what to look for when observing ferns, see: www.blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2013/04/15/how-to-learn-ferns/