Schizaea pectinata

Schizaea pectinata, the toothbrush fern, cockscomb fern or curly grass fern, at first glance resembles the restios more than the ferns. Still, it is an attractive, low-growing fern, a grassy plant growing a tuft of erect, undivided fronds that reach about 30 cm in height. The way in which the coiled, green fronds unfurl in spring to straighten from a seemingly wound up position, is a give-away clue of being a fern, not a restio.

The distribution from around the Cederberg in the Western Cape along the coast to the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal reaches Mpumalanga and Limpopo, continuing in tropical Africa as far as Tanzania and the islands Madagascar and St. Helena. This plant was photographed in Bainskloof during October.

S. pectinata is commonly seen during the first year after a fire. It typically grows on well-drained, sandy or quartzitic flats and slopes. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Privett and Lutzeyer, 2010; Bean and Johns, 2005; Manning and Goldblatt, 1996; iSpot; http://redlist.sanbi.org).