Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
New York Fern
Thelypteris noveboracensis (L.) Nieuwl.
- Family: Fern (Polypodiaceae)
- Spores: June-September
- Field Marks: This fern is readily recognized by its pinnate-pinnatifid leaves that are greatly
reduced at the base of the fronds.
- Habitat: Woods, damp thickets.
- Habit: Perennial fern from nearly scaleless, slender rhizomes.
- Stems: Present only as underground rhizomes.
- Leaves: Tapering to both ends, pinnate-pinnatifid, up to 1 1/2
feet long, with up to 46 pairs of segments, the segments thin, membranous, finely hairy on the lower
surface, the lowermost segments greatly reduced; leaf stalk slender, pale, smooth, glossy.
- Reproductive Structures: Sori containing the sporangia distinct, spherical, borne on the back of the
leaf segments midway between the vein and the margin.
Previous Species -- Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum)
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