BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Thelypteris noveboracensis | New York Fern 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
New York fern is a deciduous fern with leaves about 18 inches (46 cm)
long and 6 inches (15 cm) wide.  It grows in tufts along horizontal
rhizomes which are somewhat scaly and widely creeping [2,25].  Spore
clusters are submarginal, and spore covers are absent or minute and
quickly shrivel [24,25].  The fronds of Thelypteris noveboracensis forma
fragrans are glandular and aromatic [8,24].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Chamaephyte
   Geophyte
   Hemicrytophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Sexual reproduction will occur on bare mineral soil, but New York fern
reproduces mainly by a creeping rootstock that allows it to form dense
ground cover [11].  The rhizomes grow faster in partially cut than in
uncut stands.  New rhizomes form on the frond petiole [11].  The
rhizomes can be pulled out of the ground like a mat of sod and
transplanted [25].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
New York fern grows in moist woodlands and pastures, ravines, bogs,
swamps, and field margins of Eastern deciduous forests [24,25,28].  It
is rarely found in dry woodlands of Illinois [21].  In the Adirondack
Mountains it grows on well-drained to "imperfectly-drained" sites from
100 feet (30 m) in elevation near Lake Champlain to 2,300 feet (701 m)
in the MacIntyre Range [14].  It occurs up to 5,000 feet (1,524 m)
elevation in the Blue Ridge Province [25].  It is found on marine sandy
and glacial meltwater sites on well-drained slopes in disturbed forests
southwest of Montreal, Quebec [20].  It grows on calcareous sites in the
southern Blue Ridge escarpment.  Soils ther are Brevard phyllite, with a
pH of 6.2 to 6.5 [6].  It can also grow on sites with a pH as low as 3.8
[9].

Some overstory species with which New York fern is associated are swamp
white oak (Quercus bicolor), mazzard cherry (Prunus avium), mockernut
hickory (Carya tomentosa), pignut hickory (C. glabra), shagbark hickory
(C. ovata), white ash (Fraxinus americana), American hornbeam (Carpinus
caroliniana), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), and spicebush
(Lindera benzoin) [19,29].  Some understory associates include
hayscented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula), short huskgrass
(Bracheylytrum erectum), violet (Viola spp.), woodsorrel (Oxalis spp.),
aster (Aster spp.), clubmoss (Lycopodium spp.), viburnum (Viburnum
spp.), evergreen woodfern (Dryopteris intermedia), common greenbrier
(Smilax rotundifolia), circaea (Circaea quadrisulcata), ladyfern
(Athyrium filex-femina), Indian jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema
triphyllum), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), and wild
lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum canadense) [1,9,17,18].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Facultative Seral Species

New York fern is shade tolerant, but will grow in canopy openings in
hardwood forests [2,11,29].  


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
New York fern produces spores from May through August from Virginia
south to Georgia [28], from late July through late September in New
England [24], and from June through September in Illinois [21].  Leaves
turn brown in autumn, usually before other wood ferns [25].

Related categories for Species: Thelypteris noveboracensis | New York Fern