Irish Examiner view: Ferntastic stuff in Killarney

Stenogrammitis myosuroides has been identified in the Killarney National Park.

The discovery of something rare or even unexpected always causes excitement. The identification, at this very moment, of Stenogrammitis myosuroides in the Killarney National Park, might be contrived as positively symbolic too as its presence in today's Kerry represents extraordinary endurance. 

Stenogrammitis myosuroides, as many in the Kingdom will proudly declare this week, is Europe's rarest fern and a legacy from a very different climate that prevailed on Europe’s mild Atlantic fringes thousands of years ago. 

A neotropical fern, it had only found in the cloud forests of Jamaica, Cuba, or the Dominican Republic — nearly 6,500km across the Atlantic. How it, a genus unknown in Europe, reached Kerry remains a mystery that may never be resolved.

The tiny plant, discovered by botanist Rory Hodd, in a remote upland valley far from the nearest road may not change our world but it is a reminder that our world is constantly and profoundly changing.