categoryZFerns Ferns List 

GOLDEN-SCALED MALE-FERN

SCALY MALE-FERN

Dryopteris affinis agg.

Buckler-Fern Family [Dryopteridaceae]

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category
category8Ferns
 
status
statusZnative
 
toxicity
toxicityZhigh
 

SPECIMEN 1

4th May 2019, Appley Bridge, Leeds & L/pool Canal, Lancs Photo: © RWD
The leaves of Scaly Male-fern grow up to 1.5m long. There are 4 sub-species: ssp. affinis, ssp. cambrensis, ssp. pseudodisjuncta and ssp. borreri, all with different characteristics that many botanists cannot be bothered trying to separate. The latter ssp. borreri is the more widely distributed sub-species but also the one with least golden colour to the scales and the one which more resembles Male-Fern (Dryopteris felix-mas). Indeed Dryopteris affinis is a part of the Male-Fern (Dryopteris affinis-mas) aggregate, consisting of diploids or triploids which produce fertile spores by apomixis and sterile spores by meiosis. Untangling them is a botanists nightmare!


4th May 2019, Appley Bridge, Leeds & L/pool Canal, Lancs Photo: © RWD
Scaly Male-fern is 2-pinnate with yellowish-green blades (pinnae)


4th May 2019, Appley Bridge, Leeds & L/pool Canal, Lancs Photo: © RWD
The pinnae are toothed near the forwardly directed tips.


4th May 2019, Appley Bridge, Leeds & L/pool Canal, Lancs Photo: © RWD


4th May 2019, Appley Bridge, Leeds & L/pool Canal, Lancs Photo: © RWD


4th May 2019, Appley Bridge, Leeds & L/pool Canal, Lancs Photo: © RWD






SPECIMEN 2

Photo: © RWD
Many ferns adopt the 'shuttlecock' stance, but not all, so it is not useful to refer to any of this form as a 'shuttlecock fern'.


Photo: © RWD
Less scaly nearer the top of the stipe (stem).


Photo: © RWD
A far more scaly specimen, especially around the lower parts of the stipe.






SPECIMEN 3

A Crozier

8th April 2017, Blackbrook, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens. Photo: © RWD
The young stage, a crozier/fiddlehead uncurling. The fern adopting the 'shuttlecock' form.


8th April 2017, Blackbrook, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens. Photo: © RWD
Covered in shaggy, wide but tapering, golden-brown scales.


8th April 2017, Blackbrook, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens. Photo: © RWD
The stems emerge from rhizomes below ground.


Easily mistaken for : Male-Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) and other Dryopteris species.

There are three sub-species:

  • (Dryopteris affinis ssp. affinis) which is the most common and is found throughout the range and is also the least like Male-Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas)
  • (Dryopteris affinis ssp. cambrensis) which has distinctly crowded pinnules, some with asymmetrical tips (apices). It has rather shiny leaves and reddish-golden scaly stems.
  • (Dryopteris affinis ssp. pseudodisjuncta) (which can also resemble Narrow Male-Fern (Dryopteris cambrensis but with paler scales)
  • (Dryopteris affinis ssp. borreri) which has the closest likeness to Male-Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas)

Your Author knows not which sub-species this may represent, but ssp. affinis is the most common and your Author just tripped over this one. Differentiation between these four sub-species and their three hybrids with Male-Fern is best left to those with considerable more experience of identifying hundreds of Dryopteris Ferns than your Author.

Hybridizes with : Male-Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) to produce Dryopteris × complexa which occurs where the two parents meet. All three sub-species of Golden-scaled Male-fern hybridize with Male-Fern creating a profusion of species often clumped together by botanists as Dryopteris × complexa agg.

The whole identity of these sub-species and hybrids is in a state of flux at this time and no one can be really sure of the accuracy or even the actual existence of any sub-species of affinis, least of all your Author, so all the above photos are of the aggregate (agg.) of affinis. There are two sets shown, possibly belonging to differing sub-species/hybrids. The two sets are differentiated by the date of the photo and place it was found. Your Author wishes the reader luck should he wish to differentiate them into sub-species/hybrids.


  Dryopteris affinis  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Dryopteridaceae  

Distribution
 family8Buckler-Fern family8Dryopteridaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Dryopteris
Dryopteris
(Buckler-Ferns)

GOLDEN-SCALED MALE-FERN

SCALY MALE-FERN

Dryopteris affinis agg.

Buckler-Fern Family [Dryopteridaceae]