BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Athyrium filix-femina | Lady Fern 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Lady fern is an introduced deciduous perennial fern.  Tufted, erect
fronds may grow to 6.6 feet (2 m).  They spread vegetatively from stout,
chaffy rhizomes.  Lady fern is often confused with wood fern (Dryopteris
carthusiana) but can be readily distinguished by its elongate, sometimes
curved (rather than round) sori, which are covered by an indusium
attached on one side [12].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Undisturbed State:  Cryptophyte (geophyte)
   Burned or Clipped State:  Cryptophyte (geophyte)


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Lady fern reproduces by rhizomes and spores.  Following the eruption of
Mount St. Helens, lady fern sprouted from axillary buds of transported
rhizomes [1].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Lady fern is found growing in meadows, open thickets, moist woods, and
occasionally in swamps [12].  In West Virginia it occurred in marshy
areas where water stood 2 to 4 inches deep (5.0 to 10.2 cm), even in the
dry season [9].  It commonly grows in the understory of western
redcedar, western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga
menziesii), white spruce (Picea glauca), and black spruce [4].  It may
reach 50 to 100 percent cover under some redcedar stands where seepage
maintains high soil moisture [36].

Elevations at which lady fern occurs vary by geographic location as
follows:

Location          Elevation                

Arizona           7,000 to 9,000 feet (2,134-2,743 m) [21]
California        4,000 to 9,500 feet (1,219-2,896 m) [26]  
Idaho             4,100 to 4,300 feet (1,250-1,311 m) [34]  
Utah              7,400 to 10,500 feet (2,250-3,200 m) [38] 
Vermont           1,600 to 2,200 feet (480-670 m) [33]    
West Virginia     1,100 to feet (334 m) [9]
British Columbia  2,950 feet (900) [7]   
Ontario           1,000 feet (305 m) [7]
            


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Lady fern can colonize cracks in rocks and crevices between rocks,
making it a true pioneer species.  More frequently it occurs as a
dominant on perennially wet soil with other herbs.  It can survive
severe battering if roots are protected and in constant contact with
water [10].

Lady fern is not a pioneer species in Sitka spruce floodplains on the
west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.  It appears initially
in the young seral stage under the cover of red alder (Alnus rubra), and
increases in cover value from the young seral to the mature climax
stage.  It is a dominant herb in these mature climax floodplain forests
dominated by Sitka spruce and western hemlock [11].  In Sitka
spruce-western hemlock forests of southeast Alaska, lady fern, along
with spreading woodfern (Dryopteris austriaca) and bunchberry (Cornus
canadensis), tends to dominate in the early stages of succession (1 to
25 years after logging) on moist microsites where tree and shrub
regeneration is sparse [2].  In Glacier National Park, Montana, lady
fern is characteristically restricted to climax cedar-hemlock forests
[18].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Lady fern fronds began dropping in early October in Oregon, apparently
as a result of frost.  Usually all fronds have dropped by November [10].

Related categories for Species: Athyrium filix-femina | Lady Fern