BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Osmunda cinnamomea | Cinnamon Fern 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Cinnamon fern is a perennial fern which is native to the eastern United
States.  Rhizomes of sporophytic plants are stout, woody [49], and
creeping [18] to suberect [7]; the roots are fibrous [49].  Sporophytes
have separate fertile and sterile pinnate fronds are covered with thick
hairs when immature.  Some hairs are still present on fertile fronds at
maturity [7].  Sterile fronds are up to 6 feet (1.8 m) long [65] and 6
to 12 inches (15-30 cm) [49] wide.  Fertile fronds are shorter than
sterile fronds, and the pinnae are much smaller, nonphotosynthetic, and
cinnamon brown.  Sporangia are clustered, naked, large, globose, and
bivalved [7].  Cinnamon fern spores are green, with functional
chloroplasts.  The spores germinate into photosynthetic, platelike,
thalloid gametophytes [23,42].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Hemicryptophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Cinnamon fern spores have very short viability after release from the
sporophyte.  They either fail to germinate or germinate poorly after
just a few weeks [42].  Under controlled conditions, spores germinate at
high percentages at 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 deg C), and they also
germinate at higher temperatures [23].

One study showed that cinnamon fern sporophytes allelopathically
inhibited germination of cinnamon fern spores [59].  Another study did
not demonstrate this effect [48].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Cinnamon fern is found on poorly drained low ground and in thickets, wet
marshy woods [7], swamps, ditches, and streambanks [49].  It is
generally found in ombrotrophic bogs [60], but it also grows on
minerotrophic wooded island hummocks in peatlands [63].  It is usually
associated with sphagnum (Sphagnum spp.) [59] in wet acid soils with
high organic content [28,46,55]; it is an indicator of such soils in the
Haut-Saint-Laurent region, Quebec [41].  Where humidity is very high
cinnamon fern can sometimes be found on better drained soils [39].

Cinnamon fern has been reported at the following elevations:

                    Elevation (feet)    Elevation (m)

Florida                 125-141           38-43       [1]
Louisiana               197-276           60-84       [36] 
Maryland                  0-51             0-16       [4]
New York                210-3,124         64-952      [32]
North Carolina           39-2,917         12-889      [28,60,64]
South Carolina           45-75            14-23       [20]
West Virginia         1,096-2,625        334-800      [6,39]
Ontario                   581              177        [25]


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Facultative Seral Species

Cinnamon fern is considered a late seral species in the bog seres of the
northern United States and Laurentian Canada, but may not persist to
climax stages [10].  In the Adirondack upland flora cinnamon fern is
intolerant to midtolerant of shade [32].  Cinnamon fern in west
Louisiana occurs in bogs that are mostly open, with a few scattered
trees and shrubs [36].  However, cinnamon fern occurs in heavy shade
under a closed canopy along the Gulf Coast of Florida [57].  It also
occurs under shade in Atlantic white-cedar wetlands in New Jersey [13]
and in baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) swamps in eastern Maryland [4].

Cinnamon fern in a southern Ontario bog was subjected to disturbance by
peat mining which removed all vegetation and up to 6.6 feet (2 m) of
peat.  The mined areas had been abandoned to natural, unassisted
regeneration for 1, 6, 10, and 24 years.  Cinnamon fern occurred in all
disturbance classes, but did not occur in the undisturbed control site
[25].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Both sterile and fertile cinnamon fern fronds expand during a short
period in early spring [32,37].  Leaf expansion is complete within about
a month.  Fertile fronds begin to wither in early summer, after
sporulation is completed [32].  Sterile pinnae begin to wither at the
end of summer, and the stipe somewhat later, until the entire aerial
part of the plant is dry [37].  Cinnamon fern spores are discharged in
spring.  They can germinate within 1 or 2 days of release [23].

Cinnamon fern sporulates from March through July, depending on latitude
[20,43,52].

Related categories for Species: Osmunda cinnamomea | Cinnamon Fern