DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Pteridium aquilinum | Bracken Fern 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Bracken fern occurs throughout the world with the exception of hot and
cold deserts [189].  Subspecies aquilinum is mostly north temperate in
distribution; subspecies caudatum is found primarily in the Southern
Hemisphere [189].  The distribution of subspecies and varieties found in
the United States and Canada is as follows [72,90,119,174,189,232]:

  subspecies aquilinum:

    Var. pubescens is found in western North America and ranges south
from southern Alaska through California and into Mexico and east into
Alberta, Montana, western South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, and western
Texas.  There are outlier populations in Quebec, Ontario, and northern
Michigan.

    Var. pseudocaudatum is primarily along the eastern coastal plain of
the United States from Cape Cod to Florida.  It is less frequent to the
west but extends across the southern states to Texas, southeastern
Kansas, and as far north as Illinois.

    Var. latiusculum is basically circumboreal in range, growing across
northern Europe, northern Asia and Japan, and much of North America, but
it has not been found in western North America.  It grows from
Newfoundland west to northeastern North Dakota, and south to North
Carolina, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.  There are occasional outlier
populations in Mississippi, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Colorado.  

    Var. decompositum is restricted to the Hawaiian Islands.

  subspecies caudatum:

    Var. caudatum is present in Bermuda, southern Florida, the West
Indies, Central America, and into northern South America.


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES12  Longleaf - slash pine
   FRES13  Loblolly - shortleaf pine
   FRES14  Oak - pine
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch
   FRES19  Aspen - birch
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES22  Western white pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES24  Hemlock - Sitka spruce
   FRES25  Larch
   FRES26  Lodgepole pine
   FRES27  Redwood
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES34  Chaparral - mountain shrub
   FRES36  Mountain grasslands


STATES : 
     AL  AK  AZ  AR  CA  CO  CT  DE  FL  GA
     HI  ID  IL  IN  IA  KS  KY  LA  ME  MD
     MA  MI  MN  MS  MO  MT  NE  NV  NH  NJ
     NM  NY  NC  ND  OH  OK  OR  PA  RI  SC
     SD  TN  TX  UT  VT  VA  WA  WV  WI  WY
     AB  BC  MB  NB  NF  NS  ON  PE  PQ  YT
     MEXICO


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     ACAD  BRCA  CRLA  CHIR  FIIS  GLAC
     GRSM  KICA  NOCA  SEQU  YELL  ZION


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    3  Southern Pacific Border
    4  Sierra Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    6  Upper Basin and Range
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau
   13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont
   14  Great Plains
   15  Black Hills Uplift
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K001  Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
   K002  Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
   K003  Silver fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K005  Mixed conifer forest
   K006  Redwood forest
   K007  Red fir forest
   K008  Lodgepole pine - subalpine forest
   K009  Pine - cypress forest
   K011  Western ponderosa forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K013  Cedar - hemlock - pine forest
   K014  Grand fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K017  Black Hills pine forest
   K018  Pine - Douglas-fir forest
   K019  Arizona pine forest
   K020  Spruce - fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K021  Southwestern spruce - fir forest
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K025  Alder - ash forest
   K026  Oregon oakwoods
   K028  Mosaic of K002 and K026
   K029  California mixed evergreen forest
   K030  California oakwoods
   K033  Chaparral
   K047  Fescue - oatgrass
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest
   K100  Oak - hickory forest
   K106  Northern hardwoods
   K107  Northern hardwoods - fir forest
   K108  Northern hardwoods - spruce forest
   K110  Northeastern oak -pine forest
   K111  Oak - hickory - pine forest
   K112  Southern mixed forest
   K114  Pocosin
   K115  Sand pine scrub
   K116  Subtropical pine forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
     1  Jack pine
     5  Balsam fir
    14  Northern pin oak
    15  Red pine
    16  Aspen
    17  Pin cherry
    18  Paper birch
    19  Gray birch - red maple
    20  White pine - northern red oak - red maple
    21  Eastern white pine
    22  White pine - hemlock
    23  Eastern hemlock
    25  Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch
    30  Red spruce - yellow birch
    31  Red spruce - sugar maple - beech
    32  Red spruce
    33  Red spruce - balsam fir
    35  Paper birch - red spruce - balsam fir
    42  Bur oak
    43  Bear oak
    44  Chestnut oak
    45  Pitch pine
    51  White pine - chestnut oak
    70  Longleaf pine
    71  Longleaf pine - scrub oak
    72  Southern scrub oak
    73  Southern redcedar
    74  Cabbage palmetto
    75  Shortleaf pine
    76  Shortleaf pine - oak
    80  Loblolly pine - shortleaf pine
    81  Loblolly pine
    82  Loblolly pine - hardwood
    83  Longleaf pine - slash pine
    98  Pond pine
   110  Black oak
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   211  White fir
   212  Western larch
   213  Grand fir
   215  Western white pine
   216  Blue spruce
   217  Aspen
   218  Lodgepole pine
   221  Red alder
   223  Sitka spruce
   224  Western hemlock
   225  Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
   226  Coastal true fir - hemlock
   227  Western redcedar - western hemlock
   229  Pacific Douglas-fir
   230  Douglas-fir - western hemlock
   232  Redwood
   233  Oregon white oak
   234  Douglas-fir - tanoak - Pacific madrone
   236  Bur oak
   237  Interior ponderosa pine
   243  Sierra Nevada mixed conifer
   244  Pacific ponderosa pine - Douglas-fir
   245  Pacific ponderosa pine
   249  Canyon live oak
   250  Blue oak - Digger pine
   255  California coast live oak


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Bracken fern does not persist in forests beyond about 200 years [169].
It is a useful indicator of seral forest communities in western Oregon
[60].  In northwestern Colorado aspen (Populus tremuloides) communities,
bracken fern indicates site deterioration [121].  Published
classification schemes listing bracken fern as an indicator species or
as a dominant part of vegetation in community types (cts), habitat types
(hts), plant associations (pas), and ecosystem associations (eas) are
presented below:

Area               Classification           Authority

s CA               general veg pas, cts     Paysen and others 1980

CA: s Monterey     forest cts               Borchert and others 1988
County

nw CO: Routt NF    forest hts               Hoffman and Alexander 1980

w CO: White        forest hts               Hoffman and Alexander 1983
River NF

CO                 general veg, cts, pas    Baker 1984a

CO                 forest hts, cts          Alexander 1987

c ID               seral cts                Steele and Geier-Hayes 1989b

MI and WI          forest hts               Coffman and others 1980

s OR: Cascade Mtns forest pas               Atzet and McCrimmon 1990

nw OR              post-burn veg. cts       Bailey and Poulton 1968

OR, WA             general veg. cts         Franklin and Dyrness 1973

SD, WY: Black      forest and shrubland     Steinauer 1981
Hills NF           hts, cts

SD, WY: Black      forest and shrubland     Hoffman and Alexander 1987
Hills NF           hts

UT                 aspen cts                Mueggler and Campbell 1986

WA: Gifford        forest pas               Topik and others 1986
Pinchot N. F. 

WA: Mt.Rainier NP  forest cts, hts          Moir and others 1976

WY                 forest hts               Alexander 1986

Intermountain      aspen cts                Mueggler 1988
Region: ID,NV,
UT,WY

Pacific            general veg. pas         Hall 1984
Northwest

Region 2: CO,NE,   general veg. pas         Johnston 1987
KS,SD,WY

Related categories for Species: Pteridium aquilinum | Bracken Fern