• Wildflowers
>Ferns
• Rare Plants
• Gardening with
Native Plants
• Plant ID Guides
• Links
The Society
• Home
• Field Trips
• Meetings
• Newsletter
• Membership
• Get Involved
• Contact Us
• About this Web Site
Crested Fern (Crested Woodfern)
Dryopteris cristata
• Family: Dryopteridaceae
• Habitat: damp woods, shaded wetlands
• Height: 2-3 feet
• Location of spores: underside of frond (see third image below)
• Stipe (leaf stalk): green with many brown scales; dark at the base
• Growth pattern: asymmetric clump
• Persistence: evergreen fertile leaves; deciduous sterile leaves
Crested fern has very narrow, erect fertile fronds (in the center of the photo). The sterile fronds are shorter, broader, and floppier (lower left in the photo).
Lower part of a fertile frond. Note the small, triangular lowest leaflets.
Underside of a frond, showing the round sori (spore-bearing dots), which are placed midway between the midvein and the leaf edge.