Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Tennessee Fragile Fern

TENNESSEE FRAGILE FERN

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Cystopteris tennesseensis Shaver

Woodson County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: To 12 inches

Family: Dryopteridaceae - Wood Fern Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August, September

Also Called:

Tennessee bladder fern.

Culms:

Creeping, to 6 inches long, old petiole bases congested; scales tan to pale brown, linear-lanceolate, .08 to .12 inch, glabrous.

Leaves:

Petiole usually with dark brown base, golden-brown distally, 1.2 to 10 inches long, shorter than blade; blade triangular, 3 to 18 inches long, 1 to 5.5 inches wide, (widest at base), bi-pinnatifid, apex acuminate; pinnae short petiolate, generally perpendicular to rachis, mostly opposite, deltoid to lanceolate, .6 to 3 inches long, .2 to 1.4 inches wide, margins serrate, apex acute to acuminate; pinnules obtusely lobed and toothed, veins running to the teeth and sinuses, pinnules near apex with parallel sides and strongly ascending; indusium cup-shaped, somewhat glandular; sori discrete, round, spiny.

Habitat:

Moist woodlands, shaded limestone or sandstone crevices or ledges.

Distribution:

East 1/2 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

The Cherokee took a compound infusion for chills and the Navajo applied a cold, compound infusion on injuries.

Comments:

The leaves die back in winter. Cystopteris, Greek "Kystos", bladder, and "pteris", fern, alluding to the inflated indusium when young.

Tennessee Fragile Fern