Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Male Fern
Dryopteris filix-mas
Hollyferns/Woodferns family (Dryopteridaceae)

Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) leaf arch for their seven-to-forty inch length, easily attracting attention in their shaded niches in rocks, narrow canyon bottoms, thickets, moist woods, and stream banks. , the leaf segments, are longest near the middle and taper toward both ends. The smallest individual leaf segments (the ) are very finely . Dryopteris filix-mas is a close relative of Christmas Fern, Polystichum, . From specimens collected in Europe, Linnaeus named this Fern Polypodium filix-mas in 1753; Heinrich Schott renamed it Dryopteris filix-mas in 1834. "Dryopteris" is derived from the Greek "drys" ("oak") and "pteris" ("fern"). Latin gives us both "filix" for "fern" and "mas" for "male."


© Max Licher, downloaded from SEINet

Description

Leaves clustered on short , . Rootstocks stout, erect or declining. coarse, distinctly shorter than the , conspicuously covered with chaffy brown toward base. 8-40" long and half as wide at widest point. leaves, numerous .

Field Marks

Large fern with gracefully arching to over three feet long. Often found in partly shaded moist rocky areas and near wetlands.

© Al Schneider

scale -- A very small leaf around a dormant bud. Also other things that might remind one of fish scales on the surface of ferns, stems and the like.

pinnae -- the primary segments of a compound leaf.

the secondary division of a pinnate leaf. In a bi-pinnate leaf of a fern the pinnule will be the smallest leaflet.

sp. -- The abbreviation for "species". The plural is "spp". When used it sometimes means that the exact species is unknown. For example, "Aster sp." would mean some species within the Aster genus but the writer may not know exactly which species.

serrate -- toothed with asymmetrical teeth pointing forward; like the cutting edge of a saw.

frond -- a large, divided leaf. The leaves of most ferns are fronds.

petiole -- the stalk of a leaf.

bipinnate -- A compound leaf with two rows of leaflets where those leaflets are again compound with two rows of leafelets.

blade -- Just the flat part of a leaf. Not the stem.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

rhizome -- root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the soil surface or in other orientations underground.