Autumn is doing its thing. Leaves turning brilliant colors. Spiders with black and orange stripes on their legs, spinning intricate webs. Black walnuts thumping to the ground with loud warning, as they cascade through leaves, high in the forest canopy.
And a favorite of mine, maidenhair fern, in the genus, Adiantum, shutting down. Turning straw color, and purple. Preparing for the cold winter. Anticipating a spring in which it will send out graceful fronds. Fronds that will thrill me, once again.
I love ferns. Some remind me of ballerinas. Images of grace. Though dainty looking, many of them can be hardy plants. No need to pamper.
This one, I believe, is a fern that is native to Virginia. Northern Maidenhair Fern, Adiantum Pedatum. I moved this large clump of fern from my house in Arlington, Virginia, to my home in the mountains of central Virginia, in about 2008. Since then, it has slowly but surely become a larger and larger clump of grace and beauty.
In early spring, I check and wait for the unfurling of the beautiful little fronds to begin. They are not the first of the plants to wake from their winter slumber.
The fronds grow slowly, turning from a reddish color to green as they mature.
Finally becoming a major part of the garden. Grace and beauty.
I cannot say that Maidenhair Fern is a common plant in the woods of Snow Mountain, but I do find it from time to time. One little cluster of its fronds is used, as I hike the mountain road. Pictured here, is the clump that I use as my marker. This is my turn-around point. When I see it, I know it is time to head back down the road. Time to head home with my cameras full of pictures.
I’ve gotten to know my mountain here where I live, quite well since I’ve been hiking everyday that weather allows. One of many favorite spots is up where wild columbine grows in profusion, in scarlet dress, and cinnabar chanterelles pop up like tiny gum drops, all over the hill side. Just past that spot of red treats, both for the eye and the tummy, is a very large boulder that is surrounded by feathery fern fronds. Pale apple green, nodding with the wind. So many ferns. These are Northern Lady Fern, Athyrium filix-femina.
Fiddleheads
I’ve been watching this swath of ferns, growing in circular clusters, since they had baby fiddleheads way back in the spring. Funny to think that back then I could actually see the ground.
The Sea
The ground is now totally covered with ferns. Ferns with their fronds no longer pale apple green, but turning gold, like so many things do in the autumn. A sea of golden fronds.
Resting For The Winter
Those golden fronds are preparing to fade away for the winter. Letting their roots rest.
Evergreen
There is a fern in my woods that is evergreen though, that doesn’t fade away as autumn gives way to winter. That fern is the Christmas Fern, Polystichum acrostichoides. Perhaps this is a fern that is familiar to you. It is commonly found in garden centers, and I’m pleased to find this native in my woods, in every imaginable place. It is happy to settle nearly anywhere. I have always heard that it got its name because of the little toe on the leaflet (that leaflet is called a pinna) which looks much like a Christmas stocking.
More Fiddleheads
In the spring the Christmas Fern really turns on its charm for me. I love to watch the young fiddleheads emerge from the still cool soil, unfurling as if doing an exotic dance. To dance the whole year, until new young fiddleheads emerge and do a new dance.
As I hike each day, there are so many things that are new to me. So many animals, so many insects and spiders and the plants! So many new plants! I can hardly keep up. What with taking the photographs, bringing them home and identifying what in the world I have captured in pixels.
The Ferns
One type of plant that has always fascinated me is the fern, so it’s nice that they are pretty common up here where I hike every day. They are different than other plants in many ways and as I learn about them, I’ll fill you in! One place that I will be checking is Ellen Honeycutt’s post on ferns which has a wealth of information in it.
My First Formal Introduction
I was first introduced to the science side of ferns while taking a class through Piedmont Virginia Community College, Natural History of Virginia. Oh my! I was just in heaven in that class! My brain got filled to overflowing with knowledge during those several months!
Walking Fern
During one of our field trips, I got my first sight of Walking Fern, Asplenium rhizophyllum, a fern that to my eye, does not look like a fern, since the blade, or leaf, does not have a cut-up/frilly/lacy look to it. This is a fern that when one of its long, narrow leaves arches and touches the ground, it can sprout new plants. These leaves can be 1 to 15 inches long and 1 to 2 inches wide. Sometimes you can find an old plant surrounded by many new, little plants. This fern is an evergreen plant, with leathery leaves.
Walking Fern, Asplenium rhizophyllum
Hay-scented Fern
A fern that I had heard about but never seen, was Hay-scented Fern, Dennstaedtia punctilobula, which I stumbled upon about mid-summer of this year. I spied it close to the edge of the dirt road that I always traverse and it seemed to be calling to me. Walking over to it, a little voice in my head told me to rub the fronds and see what it smelled like. Deep in the folds of my brain I knew it was Hay-scented Fern, although I had never seen this type of fern before. Sure enough, it had a beautiful fragrance. The name hay-scented left me wanting a better descriptor for this fern which is both lovely in form and aroma!
Hay-scented Fern, Dennstaedtia punctilobula
Large Patches?
Although, I see in my Peterson Field Guide, Ferns of Northeastern and Central North America, that Hay-scented ferns usually occur in large patches; whole fields or forest gaps filled with feathery fronds, I feel very fortunate just to have found my little patch here on my daily hikes up the mountain. There are many more ferns that I see on a daily basis and I will fill you in on some of them next time I post here!
