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
Michael Hough © 2018 |