Dryopteris cristata

Crested Wood Fern

Crested Shield Fern
Photo courtesy USDA Plants Database

Flora, fauna, earth, and sky...
The natural history of the northwoods

Name:

• Dryopteris, from the Greek, drus (drys), "oak" and pteris (pteris), "fern", "fern of the oak wood"
• cristata, from the Latin cristatus, "tufted, crested"
• Common name from
• Other common names include Crested Shield Fern, Crested Buckler Fern, Buckler Fern, Narrow Swamp Fern, Dryoptère à Crêtes (Qué), Crested Buckler-fern, Gray Crested Shield Fern (UK), Granbräken (Swe), Vasstelg (Nor), Butfinnet Mangeløv (Dan), Korpialvejuuri (Fin), Kammfarn (Ger), Tarajos pajzsika (Hun)

Taxonomy:

• Kingdom Plantae, the Plants
• Division Polypodiophyta, the True Ferns
  • Class Filicopsida
    • Order Polypodiales
      • Family Dryopteridaceae, the Wood Ferns
        • Genus Dryopteris, the Wood Ferns
• Taxonomic Serial Number: 17531
• Also known as Aspidium cristatum, Lastrea cristata, Nephrodium cristatum, Polypodium cristatum, Polystichum cristatum, Thelypteris cristata
• Thought to have originated from a cross of Dryopteris ludoviciana and the hypothetical, and presumably extinct, Dryopteris semicristata.
• Hybridizes with five species, producing plants identifiable by narrow blades and triangular lower pinnae.

Description:

• A gaunt fern of wetlands.
• Fronds dimorphic; fertile leaves deciduous, 10"-24"; sterile leaves smaller, 6"-12", forming persistent, evergreen rosette.
  • Petiole (leaf stalk) 1/4--1/3 length of leaf, scaly at least at base; scales scattered and tan.
  • Blade green, narrowly lanceolate or with parallel sides, twice-cut.
  • Rachis (axis) green; slightly scaly toward base.
  • Pinnae (primary leaflets) of fertile leaves triangular, twisted out of plane of blade and perpendicular to it; lower pair somewhat reduced in size.
  • Pinnules (secondary leaflets) uncut, with spiny teeth; lowest pair of pinnules longer than adjacent pinnules; basal basiscopic pinnule and basal acroscopic pinnule equal.
• Rootstalk dark brown, stout, creeping or ascending, with numerous brown scales.
  • Roots black, wiry, and widely spreading; numerous.
• Sori midway between midvein and leaf edge.
  • Indusia kidney shaped, with minute hairs.

Identification:

• The narrow frond with short, widely spaced, and tilted leaflets is unlike anything else in the North Country.
• Distinguished from other Dryopteris species by habitat and narrow fronds with widely spaced leaflets tilted out of the plane of the blade.
• Field Marks
  • wetland habitat
  • narrow fronds with widely spaced, tilted leaflets

Distribution:

• Circumboreal, British Columbia to Newfoundland, south to NE Washington, Idaho, NW Montana, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and North Carolina.
• Europe from Norway to Russia, south to the UK, Spain, Italy, and Romania.

Habitat:

• Moist woods, thickets, marshes, swamps, sphagnum bogs, and open shrubby wetlands.

Fire:

Associates:

History:

Uses:

Reproduction:

• By spore and vegetatively by rhizome.

Propagation:

• By rhizome division.

Cultivation:

• Hardy to USDA Zone 3 (average minimum annual temperature -40ºF)
• Cultural Requirements
• Sun to part shade.
• Moist to wet soil
• Occasionally available by mail order from specialty suppliers.

Links:

• Den Virtuella Floran, Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, Stockholm

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