Wood Fern Family

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

Iconic Features

• Scales on stalks
• Fronds 1- to 4-pinnate
• Sori along frond veins
• Indusia present

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.

Pai, A. 2018, Dec. 28. Fantastic ferns and where to find them. Bay Nature.

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

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.

Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.

Flora of North America. efloras.org.

Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Native American Ethnobotany DB.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.

Browse Some Edgewood Plants in this Family