title: Pellaea rotundifolia
text: # Pellaea rotundifolia
  
  Pellaea rotundifolia, the button fern, is a species of fern endemic to New Zealand, where it grows in scrub and forests. It is also a popular garden plant (in zones 8 and 9) and house plant, tolerating low temperatures but not freezing.
  
  Pellaea rotundifolia is a compact, evergreen fern that can have more than 30 pairs of round, dark-green, leathery pinnae on fronds up to 18 in (460 mm) in length. The Latin specific epithet rotundifolia means “round-leaved”.
  
  * Underside of the pinnae
  * In cultivation
  
  ## Cultivation
  
  It needs acidic and well-drained soil; it does not appreciate the moist, humid conditions that most ferns require so does well with minimal watering.
  
  This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
  
  