Ferns List |
Ostrich & Sensitive Fern [Onocleaceae] |
Fronds Green: |
Fertile Fronds: |
Spores Ripe (next year): |
8th April 2017, wet woods, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
A stolon has spread laterally (towards the photographers feet) to form a new plant (bottom). The leaves are of two sorts: the first to emerge are sterile, 2-pinnate leaves, as shown here. |
8th April 2017, wet woods, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
The infertile fronds taper at both ends, being widest in the middle. |
5th June 2012, Fyfe, Scotland. | Photo: © John Brailsford |
The crown at first is completely vertical, then becomes shuttlecock-shaped (hence the alternative name). Grows to 1.7m high, and is mainly an ornamental garden plant, but is not native although it does grow wild. It spreads laterally by stolons to form new crowns, or by spores released in early spring. |
5th June 2012, Fyfe, Scotland. | Photo: © John Brailsford |
The fronds are dimorphic: there are two types, sterile and fertile. Those in the photograph above are sterile and do not bear spores. |
5th June 2012, Fyfe, Scotland. | Photo: © John Brailsford |
The fertile fronds, which are bi-pinnate, resemble ostrich plumes, hence the common name. They also superficially resemble those of Lemon-Scented Fern (Oreopteris limbospermum) and they don't smell of lemons either. |
8th April 2017, wet woods, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
Obverse of infertile frond. The main rachis is rounded on the underside. Pinnules not always directly opposite each other. |
8th April 2017, wet woods, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
Obverse of infertile frond. Closer inspection reveals that the underside of the rachis may have two rows of short hairs each side running the length |
8th April 2017, wet woods, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
Obverse of infertile frond. The pinnules are not entirely separate, but are connected near the middle 'stem' similar to web-fingers, |
8th April 2017, wet woods, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
The pinnules look like oven mits, with little to no teeth (they may have a slightly wavy edge). The pinnules nearest the rachis and pointing down the leaf are noticeably bent over the rachis whilst those pointing towards the end of the leaf are slightly underneath the rachis, but not bent. |
8th April 2017, wet woods, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
Unlike the obverse, the top of the rachis has a groove down the centre making it look like two fused round rachis. Some of the rachis-overlapping pinnules do have a tiny thumb which points towards the rachis, but not all. All the other pinnules are slightly asymmetric with a definite curve away from the rachis. |
8th April 2017, wet woods, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
A few pinnules may have tiny teeth at the truncated end. |
8th April 2017, wet woods, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
The rachis-overlapping pinnules are more pronouncedly barrel-shaped than the other pinnules. Some with tiny teeth at the end. |
8th April 2017, wet woods, Carr Mill Dam, St. Helens Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
Lower stems are clean-shaven and completely smooth, with smaller and smaller pinnate leaves all the way down to the base. Last years' brown stems lie strewn around the base from where several new shoots spring like as from the base of a shuttlecock. |
28th Aug 2012, Fyfe, Scotland. | Photo: © RWD |
In Autumn some upright and shorter, up to 60cm tall, fertile fronds appear (which are not 2-pinnate as the infertile fronds) but only 1-pinnate, a little like those of Royal Fern, but not supported at the summit on normal fronds and nor are they held so high. |
28th Aug 2012, Fyfe, Scotland. | Photo: © John Brailsford |
1-pinnate fertile frond. The sporangia are hidden inside highly modified leaf tissue that curls over. The fertile fronds, at up to 60cm high, are shorter than the infertile fronds and turn a rusty brown over winter but the spores will only be released in early spring. |
Not to be confused with other : Ostrich Fern is the only plant in the Matteuccia genus. Ostrich Fern used to be classified as a member of the Dryopteridaceae, but this was changed to the Ostrich & Sensitive Fern Family (Onocleae). It is not native to the UK, being an introduction grown in gardens, from which it escapes. It likes to grow in shady places such as damp woods, where the St. Helens plant was discovered. It is not poisonous. The tips of young shoots, as croziers or fiddleheads, can be eaten raw in salads, or as a wayside snack or cooked as a vegetable.
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Matteuccia | struthiopteris | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Onocleaceae |
Matteuccia (Ostrich Fern) |
Ostrich & Sensitive Fern [Onocleaceae] |