Meduxnekeag Flora

1. Rare Appalachian Hardwood Forest Plants
2. Appalachian Hardwood Forest Trees
3. Other Flowering Plant Species
4. Other Forest Trees
5. Some Plants of Other Forest Types
6. Some Other Common Plants
7. Some Shrubs
8. Some Common Ferns

Some Common Ferns

Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides); usually low-growing, in rich hardwood or mixed forest; leaves remain green over winter until replaced by new growth in spring.
Cinnamon Fern (Osmunda cinnamomea); large fern, often a metre or more tall; prefers moist to swampy areas; one of the most common ferns, often forming large clusters of many plants; has “cinnamon”-coloured fertile leaflets appearing in late spring.
Interrupted Fern (Osmunda claytoniana); large, arching fern, with “interruptions” where there are no leaflets in the centre of leaf stalks; common, preferring forest edges and drier soil; one of the earliest ferns to emerge in spring, with brown wooly fiddleheads.
Ostrich Fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris); the edible fiddlehead, widespread along rivers and streams as well as in moist forest seepage areas.
Hayscented Fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula); medium-sized fern; yellowish-green leaves; prefers dry slopes in partial shade to full sun.
Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis); medium-sized common fern with broad “unfernlike” leaves; prefers damp to wet habitat in full sun to full shade.
Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum); large fern a metre or more tall; widespread and common, thrives in many habitats, usually in poor or thin soil; leaves appear branched.
Oak Fern (Gymnocarpium dryopteris); small fern of cool damp woods; widespread in the watershed.