point de fougère

CONT: The [fern stitch] is a simple stitch useful for working fern-like sprays of leaf veinings, made by working three straight stitches all radiating from the same central hole. The execution is easy and can be followed quite plainly from the diagram. The stitches must be of equal length. (Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches, 1977, p. 96).