Woodland Plants

 


Hi,
My wife and I own a small wood in E. Sussex, not exactly a garden I
know.
Identifying and learning about the plants isn't especially easy,
so I wondered
if you could help. If you can there will be lots of
questions.
I have read the rules on posting pictures, OK, I have a little forum on
my
website that nobody uses so I will put my pics there.
My website can be found at http://millwoodnature.com/  but that should
appear in
my profile. The wood, by the way, is a chestnut coppice with
oak standards. It
is filling up with bluebells and wood anemones and is
a lovely place to waste
time.

Here's my first question, is this christmas fern? If not, can anybody
tell me
what it is?
http://tinyurl.com/2582g6
Thank you for reading this, hope it all works.
Colin




--
oaks

 


Hi Colin:

it is hard to see the photo clearly and I have never seen Christmas
fern
but if you look at the picture in
http://www.portableherbarium.com/Polystichum-acrostichoides.jpg
and look at the bootom of each "leaf" (pinna), you see it is
asymetrical. Polystichums look like that (sticky out bit on one side)
and it joins the stem sith a very short but clear stalk.
Check yours to see if they match.
Hard fern (Blechnum spicant) is a common woodland fern here in Ireland
but it is confusing because it has two types of frond (sterile and
fertile).
Look at the pictures in
http://www.plant-identification.co.uk/skye/blechnaceae/blechnum-spicant.htm
Yours also look like sterile Blechnum fronds but I am no fern expert.

Des

 


p.s it does not look like P.acrostichoides grows wild in the uk

 


Des Higgins;776969 Wrote:

dazzhigg...@hotmail.com wrote:-

inhttp://www.portableherbarium.com/Polystichum-acrostichoides.jpg

inhttp://www.plant-identification.co.uk/skye/blechnaceae/blechnum-spica ...

Thanks Des

Blechnum spicant is in the frame. The only thing is, I have been
watching this
fern for about six months and don't recall seeing any
unusual or different
fronds on it. I will go through my old photo's and
see if I missed anything.
Would the fertile fronds only appear at a
certain time of year? Perhaps before
we bought the wood in June?

I take your point about the quality of the photo's and will try and
improve that.

Thanks for your help.
Colin




--
oaks

 


Let me put it another way; Blechnum is a common woodland fern that
looks just like the one in your picture; Christmas fern is not found
wild in the UK :-).  The sterile fronds of Blechnum are mainly what
you see when you find it.  The fertile ones presumeably come out
seasonally but I do not know when.  Google it?  There is lots of info,
once you know the species.

Des