Common Ferns

Of the seven ferns recorded at Filnore Woods, these three are still very visible in winter.

Harts Tongue Fern is evergreen but gets increasingly tatty towards spring,when the new fronds emerge.  It hardly looks like a fern at all as the leaves (or more correctly 'fronds') are undivided.  It favours alkaline sols and will grow on limestone rocks and walls. 

You can see a few male ferns in the photo as well.

Here below is a Male Fern in summer.  There are several similar 'bipinnate' ferns where each frond is divided first into pinnae and then each pinna is divided into pinnules .   In the male fern the pinnules are quite simply shaped with no frills or thumbs or further divisions.  

The picture below, taken today, shows the underside of part of a male fern frond.  You can see small brown pimples, up to seven on each pinnule.  This is where the spores (like seeds) are produced. 

The other most common fern is Bracken.  It is the only one that has a stalk with fronds branching off at intervals.  It can easily reach six feet high.

Although its dead foliage gives a splash of lighter colour in the dark days of winter, it is very invasive and hard to eliminate so we are not that pleased to see it spreading.

We also have Lady Fern, Broad Buckler Fern, Soft Shield Fern and one small specimen of Polypody at Filnore.