MARSH FERN
File Size: 107 KB
 
Thelypteris palustris  Schott  var. pubescens  (Lawson ) Fernald
Ellsworth County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 8-40+ inches
Family: Thelypteridaceae - Maiden Fern Family
Flowering Period:  
Also Called: Eastern marsh fern.
Culms: Stem long-creeping rhizome, slender, to 12 inches long, 1/25 to 1/8 in diameter, branched; scales few, ovate, light brown, appressed.
Leaves: Somewhat of two forms, lanceolate in outline, divided into distinct segments, each segment further partially divided; stalks slender, 3 to 24 inches, straw-colored, darker at base, glabrous above at maturity; lower surface and mid-veins minutely soft-hairy to nearly glabrous, brownish scales sometimes present; blade 4 to 22 inches long, 2.6 to 8 inches wide; sterile leaves shorter than fertile leaves, divisions somewhat broader; primary divisions nearly opposite or alternate, to 40 pairs, 1 to 4 inches long, .3 to .8 inches wide; tips pointed; division segments ovate to elliptic; margins entire or rarely toothed; tips rounded to pointed; fertile leaves taller, more erect, divisions narrower; primary divisions to 25 pairs, 1 to 4 inches long, .2 to .8 inch wide, tapering to pinnately-divided tip; lower divisions commonly shorter; division segments oblong, entire; sori round, borne on back of division segments, often running together with age and forming line around segment margins; indusium kidney-shaped, tan, without glands, often hairy.
Habitat: Moist ground; marshes, wet woods and thickets, roadside ditches, stream banks, prairie ravines; sandy soils.
Distribution: East 1/2 of Kansas.
Origin: Native
Reproduction: Ferns are plants that reproduce by spores rather than by true flowers.
Uses: The Iroquois used the roots as a gynecological aid.
Comments: Dervived from Greek thelys "female" and pteris "fern". The leaves of marsh fern die back in the winter.

Marsh fern
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Ellsworth County, Kansas
Marsh fern sori on underside of fertile leaf
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Ellsworth County, Kansas
Marsh fern
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Ellsworth County, Kansas
Marsh fern
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Ellsworth County, Kansas
Marsh fern
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Ellsworth County, Kansas
Marsh fern
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Ellsworth County, Kansas