 "A. dregei" is a popular garden plant in South Africa, with plants being collected for use from the wild sufficiently often to cause it to become extinct in some areas.The silver fern, "Alsophila dealbata" has become a widely recognised symbol of New Zealand, although it is not an official national symbol.In the 1971 comedy film "A New Leaf", Henrietta Lowell (played by Elaine May) is a botanist whose dream is to classify a new species of fern.