Looking superb this week is our great native fern, Thelypteris kunthii (southern shield fern) So what is a kunth? In fact, this fern gets its name from German taxonomist, Carl Sigismund Kunth (1788 – 1850). Kunth was one of the first people to categorize North American plants, mostly from the collections of  German botanists, Humboldt and Bonpland. Thelypteris kunthii was named in his honor in 1967, long after Kunth’s death, by American botanist Conrad Morton (1905-1972). In our gardens, it thrives in both light shade and full sun…an amazing plant.