Cyrtomium falcatum 'Plasticity'

Cyrtomium 'Plasticity' is a 2011 Plant Delights/JLBG introduction of plant I spotted back in 2008, walking through the temperate house at the Missouri Botanic Garden. My eye was drawn to an obviously odd holly fern in the midst of a mass planting of Cyrtomium falcatum. Upon feeling up the foliage (still legal in Missouri at the time), it was obvious the ploidy (the number of chromosomes) was higher than normal. Instead of feeling like a normal holly fern leaf, the foliage felt like thick plastic. The garden was kind enough to share spores which subsequently reproduced plants virtually identical to the parent, so we christened it Cyrtomium 'Plasticity'. The plant size and shape is similar to the species...around 1' tall x 2' wide.