Crested Shield Fern thrives in shady gardens
Crested Shield Fern thrives in moist shady woodlands and riparian zones, but will thrive in a shaded garden setting with regular watering. It is a good choice near streams or water features in cottage and native gardens.
(Photo courtesy KINNIKINNICK NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY)
In 1848, Asa Gray, considered by many to be the most important American botanist of the 19th century, named and published a description of Crested Shield Fern (Dryopteris cristata), a lovely, rich green, semi-evergreen found in moist woodlands in much of the Northern Hemisphere.
Also called Crested Wood Fern and Narrow Swamp Fern, Crested Shield Fern has both sterile and fertile fronds. This non-flowering plant produces irregular rows of spores in round to kidney-shaped clusters called sori on the underside of the fertile fronds. These fronds die after the spores ripen and disperse, but the sterile fronds remain as a rosette through the winter.
In the spring, new fertile fronds unfurl from the central rhizome. Called fiddleheads, they resemble the scroll end of a miniature violin, bright green with irregular brown flaky scales. The fertile fronds are larger than the male fronds, reaching one to two feet. All fronds have many leaflets branching off the main stem. Each leaflet is also divided into smaller leaflets with spiky teeth on their ends. Botanists call this type of leaf doubly pinnate or bipinnate. The leaflets on the fertile fronds are unusual in the fern world. As they extend from the rising central stem, they tilt horizontally, resembling stairs on a staircase.
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