The ferns in a colony come in different sizes, shapes and textures but fit together like jigsaw pieces and collaborate with each other to store water and nutrients for the whole colony – especially important because the plants grow high up on trees without soil or much water.

Ferns with long green fronds deflect rainwater to the centre of the colony where plants with brown spongy fronds soak up the moisture and nutrients, then pass this on to all the colony members using a network of roots.

This level of collaboration has never been seen before in plants and is remarkably like the cooperation seen in colonies of social insects such as ants or bees