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Spinulose Wood Fern

Dryopteris carthusiana

Spinulose wood fern is the most adaptable of the eastern wood ferns and the one most likely to turn up unplanted, growing in swamp edges, moist forest, on rotting stumps and in the mossy hollows of old logs across an enormous range. Its fronds are lacy and three times divided, and each segment ends in a fine bristle, which is the character the name records. It builds slowly into soft open colonies from a short creeping rhizome rather than standing as a single crown. The fronds die back with the first hard frost, unlike the evergreen wood ferns it often grows beside, so it is worth pairing with something that holds through winter. It hybridizes freely with its relatives, which is why intermediate plants are common and field identification is often a matter of degree. It wants moisture and shade and is otherwise undemanding.

Family

Dryopteridaceae

Type

fern

Lifespan

perennial

Height

2–3 ft

Spacing

2–3 ft apart

Light

part shade, shade

Soil moisture

moist

Soil pH

acidic

Landscape uses

border, naturalizing

Native states

AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV