Intermediate Wood Fern or Evergreen Wood Fern -- Dryopteris intermedia
I believe this is Intermediate Wood Fern or Evergreen Wood Fern - Dryopteris intermedia - in Cherokee National Forest near Greeneville, Tennessee.
One of the most common ferns of the region, wide ranging in rich woods, rocky slopes, mossy boulders and ledges, and wooded stream margins at all elevations. Rare in Alabama, found only in the Sipsey Gorge and one county in northeast Alabama.
It is very similar in appearance to Southern Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina var. asplenioides) and Mountain Wood Fern (Dryoptera campyloptera). Mountain Wood Fern is deciduous (not evergreen like Intermediate Wood Fern), grows only above 4,000 feet elevation, and is taller and broader. Southern Lady Fern is also deciduous and differs in particulars of the structure of the basal pinna pair (they are longer towards the rachis, which I don't think I see).
All three ferns however do grow together and all three can be common, and in many cases exact species identification requires examination of such features as glandular hairs on the rachis and costa and the characteristics of the lowest pinna pair. I am cautiously optimistic this is a correct identification.
Short and Spaulding, Ferns of Alabama
Evans, Ferns of the Smokies
Intermediate Wood Fern or Evergreen Wood Fern -- Dryopteris intermedia
I believe this is Intermediate Wood Fern or Evergreen Wood Fern - Dryopteris intermedia - in Cherokee National Forest near Greeneville, Tennessee.
One of the most common ferns of the region, wide ranging in rich woods, rocky slopes, mossy boulders and ledges, and wooded stream margins at all elevations. Rare in Alabama, found only in the Sipsey Gorge and one county in northeast Alabama.
It is very similar in appearance to Southern Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina var. asplenioides) and Mountain Wood Fern (Dryoptera campyloptera). Mountain Wood Fern is deciduous (not evergreen like Intermediate Wood Fern), grows only above 4,000 feet elevation, and is taller and broader. Southern Lady Fern is also deciduous and differs in particulars of the structure of the basal pinna pair (they are longer towards the rachis, which I don't think I see).
All three ferns however do grow together and all three can be common, and in many cases exact species identification requires examination of such features as glandular hairs on the rachis and costa and the characteristics of the lowest pinna pair. I am cautiously optimistic this is a correct identification.
Short and Spaulding, Ferns of Alabama
Evans, Ferns of the Smokies