Woodwardia areolata (L.) T. Moore - Netted Chain-fern


 

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Woodwardia areolata - (image 1 of 3)

 

Taxonomy

Family: Blechnaceae

Habitat

Swamps, bogs and other moist shaded habitats with acid soil.

Associates

 

 Distribution

Nova Scotia to northern FL, west to MI, MO, and eastern TX.

Morphology

Perennial from long creeping rhizomes. Leaves deciduous, dimorphic, 20-80 cm; sterile fronds with a straw-colored petiole, deltoid-ovate, deeply pinnatifid or nearly pinnate at the base, segments in 7-10 pairs, each serrate and net-veined with several series of areoles; fertile fronds with shiny purple-black petiole, segments narrowly linear with a single series of areoles along the costa; indusia linear, 4-8 mm, opening slowly and not reflexed in age.

Notes

Spores produced midsummer to fall

Wetland indicator: OBL

This species resembles sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis) which has sterile fronds with crenately lobed segments and fertile fronds that resemble a cluster of grapes.

References

Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.

The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY

 


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 Michael Hough © 2018