Dryopteris carthusiana (Vill.) H.P. Fuchs - Spinulose Woodfern


 

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Dryopteris carthusiana - (image 1 of 5)

 

Taxonomy

Family: Dryopteridaceae

 

 

Habitat

Moist or wet woods and swamps.

Associates

 

Distribution

Circumboreal, south in North America to SC, AR, and WA.

Morphology

Deciduous from short, creeping, more or less ascending or erect rhizomes. Leaves monomorphic; petiole and rachis eglandular; blade 20-50 cm long, broadest just above the base, abruptly tapered to an acuminate tip; bipinnate-pinnatifid to tripinnate; lowest inferior pinnules of lowest pinnae longer than the adjacent pinnule; ultimate segments spinulose-toothed (spine-tipped); sori not marginal, midway between the midvein and the margins of the ultimate segments.

Notes

Sori produced June to December

Wetland indicator: FACW

It is thought that this species originated as an ancient hybrid of D. intermedia and a hypothetical extinct species D. semicristata. Unlike D. intermedia, this species does not have glandular herbage, has leaves that die in the winter, and the lowest two inner pinnules are longer than the adjacent pinnules. Hybrids with D. intermedia are called D. x triploidea Wherry.

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

 

Montgomery, J.D. and Wagner, W.H. Jr. 1993. Dryopteris. In: Flora of North America North of
Mexico, Vol. 2. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.

 


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 Michael Hough © 2018