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The air fern ( Sertularia argentea) is a dead and dried colony of , a species of marine animal in the family Sertulariidae related to and jellyfish.
Air ferns are typically dyed green and sold as a curiosity, as a decorative "indoor plant"; the same skeletons of former colonies of hydroids are sold in their natural dried state as the sea fir and Neptune plant as underwater decorations for aquariums.
The fernlike branches of S. argentea are composed of many small, chambers where individual animals once lived. When the colony was alive, a polyp with numerous tentacles occupied each of the chambers, called hydrotheca.
Sometimes dried bryozoa are sold as "air ferns."
Most commercially sold air ferns are collected as a by-product by trawling in the North Sea.
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