I might be showing my age here, but I wonder who else remembers buying a fancy-looking Maidenhair Fern in a pot to liven up a bathroom (this was the 70s, so of course everything was brown, orange and yellow)? They usually struggled and died within a couple of months, adding another shade of brown to the colour scheme. Or perhaps it was because I grew up in Western Australia, where the climate is not so conducive to ferns. The thing is, in this part of the world, and in their preferred natural settings, Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum aethiopicum) is outstandingly tough and durable, coping through extended hot, dry and windy periods.

The foliage might die back a bit, or even a lot, in harsh conditions, but they can survive for long periods because their underground rhizomes (root-like growths) escape the drying conditions experienced by the fronds above ground.  

Right now, the Maidenhair Ferns around the Illawarra are in a dying-back sort of phase, as the lush growth they've been able to sustain through three La Niñas and a relatively damp El Niño is now being fried by very hot and dry conditions for early autumn. They look a bit sickly, but this will pass when good rains return.

If you want to check out Maidenhair Ferns in your local area, there are plenty of options. This species, in line with its hardiness, is not a rainforest specialist, but can be found in damp forested areas across the Illawarra region. Right near me, there's a very large colony of Maidenhair Ferns growing in wet sclerophyll forest dominated by Blackbutts (Eucalyptus pilularis) and with a wide range of rainforest species starting to group around it. It keeps going through thick and thin. You'll likely see these ferns alongside any creek running eastward down the escarpment slopes, as long as it hasn't been too heavily modified. 

And just to go full circle, growing Maidenhair Fern in pots, if not in bathrooms, is still very much a thing. This stunning specimen is growing on a back verandah in Woonona and is doing very well. 

If you see Maidenhair Fern on a bushwalk, enjoy it in situ and please don't try to dig up a portion. There are still nurseries that grow and sell this species in ways that don't do any damage to local ecosystems.