Wood Fern Family :

Dryopteridaceae (dry-OP-ter-id-AY-see-ee)

Iconic Features

Description (Jepson)

Ferns (Polypodiopsida)
- An early group of vascular plants that produce spores (reproductive cells)
  - Produce no flowers or seeds
  - Fossil records date back almost 400 million years, versus 130 million years for flowering plants
Perennial herbs
- Grow from rhizomes (horizontal underground stems)
Fronds (leaves)
- Compound (divided into leaflets), with 1-4 levels of division (1-4 pinnate)
- Young fronds uncurl from tight spirals called fiddleheads
- Stalks (petioles) have scales
Sori
- Sori (singular: sorus) are clusters of spore-producing, sac-like structures called sporangia (singular: sporangium)
  - Sporangia sacs split open to catapult mature, microscopic spores, which are wind dispersed
- Located on the underside of leaflets along the veins
- Each round sorus is protected by a tissue flap called an indusium (plural: indusia)

Notes

More than 1,600 species worldwide
Scientific name from the included genus Dryopteris, from the Greek drys, “oak,” and pteris, “fern,” referring to the plants’ habitat
Represented by 2 species at Edgewood
Edgewood has 7 fern species in 4 plant families
- Brake family (Pteridaceae)
  - California maidenhair fern (Adiantum jordanii)
  - Coffee fern (Pellaea andromedifolia)
  - Goldback fern (Pentagramma triangularis)
- Polypody family (Polypodiaceae)
  - California polypody (Polypodium californicum)
- Wood fern family (Dryopteridaceae)
  - Coastal wood fern (Dryopteris arguta)
  - Western sword fern (Polystichum munitum)
- Horsetail family (Equisetaceae)
  - Giant horsetail (Equisetum telmateia ssp. braunii)

Specific References

American Fern Society. About Ferns.

U.S. Forest Service. What are ferns? Forest Service. United States Department of Agriculture.

Browse Some Edgewood Plants in this Family