This tree-fern forms a massive buttress trunk (caudex) up to 2m (6ft) in diameter and covered in brown hairs and fibrous roots. It has large soft textured divided dark green fronds radiate out from the crown and the fertile fronds appear in summer.

Hardiness zones 8 to 10

Dicksonia antarctica is naturally found in Australia growing on the east coast from Queensland to Tasmania in high rainfall areas and in moist gullies on the coast and in the lower mountains. 

It prefers a deep moist peaty loam that is tending acidic in a semi shaded wind protected position and is frost and drought tender.

The Soft Tree Fern is grown for its soft leafy appearance and is planted in the understory of shaded garden borders or mass planted in damp gullies for a rainforest effect. It is also used around water features or grown as a container plant. It is slow growing and normally bought at its established height and can be easily transplanted for an instant effect in a new garden. ID 435

Dicksonia (dik-SON-ee-a) antarctica (ăn-TARK-ti-ka)

‘Dicksonia’: after English botanist James Dickson; ‘antarctica’: from the south.

Cyatheaceae (sy-AY-thee-AY-see-ee)