Woodsia scopulina

Rocky Mountain Woodsia

Rocky Mountain Woodsia
Photo courtesy Charles Webber
and the California Academy of Sciences

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

Name:

• Woodsia, for English botanist Joseph Woods (1776-1864).
• scopulina, from the Greek, skopelos (skopelos), "peak, headland, promontory"
• Common name from its primary range in the northern Rockies.
• Other common names include Mountain Cliff Fern, Woodsie des Rochers (Qué)

Taxonomy:

• Kingdom Plantae, the Plants
  • Division Polypodiophyta, the True Ferns
    • Class Filicopsida
      • Order Polypodiales
        • Family Dryopteridaceae, the Wood Ferns
          • Genus Woodsia, the Cliff Ferns
• Taxonomic Serial Number: 17747
• Subspecies
  • scopulina, from mountainous regions of western North America
  • appalachiana, from mountianous regions of the southeastern US
  • laurentiana, from the Great Lakes region

Description:

• A small fern of rocky places, rare in our area.
• Fronds 3½"-14"
  • Petiole (leaf stalk) usually reddish brown to dark purplewhen mature, not articulated above base, relatively brittle and easily shattered.
  • Blade lanceolate to linear-lanceolate
  • Rachis (axis) usually with abundant hairs.
  • Pinnae (primary leaflets) lanceolate-deltate to ovate, longer than wide, abruptly tapered to a rounded or broadly acute tip; largest pinnae with 5-14 pairs of pinnules; both surfaces glandular and sparsely hairy, with flattened hairs concentrated along midribs.
  • Pinnules (secondary leaflets) toothed, often shallowly lobed; margins thin, slightly glandular and occasionally ciliate with isolated hairs, lacking translucent projections. Vein tips may be slightly enlarged, barely visible on upper surface.
• Rookstalk compact, erect to ascending, with few to many persistent petiole bases of unequal lengths; scales uniformly brown or bicolored with dark central stripe and pale brown margins, ovate to narrowly lanceolate.
• Shows substantial variation in leaf size, shape, and dissection, and in the abundance of hairs on the pinnae.

Identification:

• Identifiable as Woodsia by
  • relatively small size for our area
  • affinity for rocky habitats
  • twice-cut fronds
• Distinguished from
  • Smooth Woodsia (Woodsia glabella) by its hairs and scales
  • Alpine Woodsia (Woodsia alpina) and Rusty Woodsia (Woodsia ilvensis), by its unarticulated leaf stalk (petiole) and toothed leaf edges.
  • Oregon Woodsia (Woodsia oregana ) by its hairs which are concentrated along the midrib on both surfaces, and by its mature leafstalks, which are typically a reddish brown to dark purple in color and relatively brittle, shattering easily.
• Field Marks
  • hairs and scales on fronds and leafstalks
  • absence of stem segmentation or articulation
  • color of mature leaf stalk

Distribution:

• Primary range in the northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest.
• Also found north of Lakes Superior and Huron in Ontario and NE Minnesota.

Habitat:

• Cliffs and rocky slopes; on a variety of substrates including both granite and limestone

Fire:

Associates:

History:

Uses:

Reproduction:

• By spore

Propagation:

• By spore; difficult.

Cultivation:

• Hardy to USDA Zone 3 (average minimum annual temperature -40ºF)
• Generally not available commercially.

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