Polystichum acrostichoides
Christmas Fern
[ click on any image below to see larger version ]
Family:
Dryopteridaceae
Mid-Atlantic bloom time:
June - September
Common throughout in shaded locations, Christmas Fern is evergreen (hence its common name).
The fronds are once-divided and semi-erect until the first frost, after which they lie flat on the ground.
The pinnae (leaflets) are lance shaped with a basal lobe on their upper side (supposedly looking like a Christmas stocking);
the edges of each pinna are serrated with bristles at their tip.
Silvery fiddleheads emerge in early spring.
On fertile fronds, the length of the pinnae are shorter starting about 1/2 to 2/3 up the blade.
Christmas Fern is in the Holly Fern genus.
The genus name is from the Greek polys, meaning many, and stichos, meaning rows;
this refers to the rows of reproductive sori on the underside of the pinnae.
29 May 2015
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve
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22 March 2015
Scotts Run Nature Preserve, McLean, VA
frond
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22 March 2015
Scotts Run Nature Preserve, McLean, VA
(close up of individual pinea)
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22 March 2015
Scotts Run Nature Preserve, McLean, VA
(Note how the fronds have reclined during the winter)
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15 April 2015
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA
(emerging fiddleheads in spring)
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15 April 2015
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA
(emerging fiddleheads in spring)
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5 June 2014
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA
(showing spore-bearing structures)
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29 May 2015
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA
(with fertile fronds, significantly narrowed in fertile tips)
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