Common Ladyfern

Athyrium filix-femina is circumboreal, and this or closely related species extend into Mexico, Central America, and South America. The delimitation and infraspecific classification of A . filix-femina need detailed study.

Stems short-creeping or ascending. Petiole straw-colored distally, 7--60 cm, base dark red-brown or black, swollen, with 2 rows of teeth; scales light to dark brown, linear- to ovate-lanceolate, 7--20 × 1--5 mm. Blade elliptic, lanceolate to oblanceolate, 2-pinnate to 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, 18--30 × 5--50 cm, herbaceous but with cartilaginous margin, narrowed to base, apex acuminate. Pinnae sessile to short-stalked, linear-oblong to lanceolate, apex acuminate. Pinnules pinnatifid, segments oblong-linear to narrowly deltate, margins serrate. Rachis , costae, and costules glabrous or with glands or hairs. Veins pinnate. Sori straight, hooked at distal end, or horseshoe-shaped; indusia dentate or ciliate.

Polypodium filix-femina Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 1090. 1753

More info for the term: prescribed fire

The Research Papers (Hamilton 2006a, Hamilton 2006b) and Research Project Summary of Hamilton's studies provide information on prescribed fire and postfire response of many plant species, including common ladyfern, that was not available when this species review was originally written.

common ladyfern
lady fern

More info for the terms: fern, sori

Common ladyfern is an introduced deciduous perennial fern.  Tufted, erect fronds may grow to 6.6 feet (2 m).  They spread vegetatively from stout, chaffy rhizomes.  Common ladyfern is often confused with wood fern (Dryopteris carthusiana) but can be readily distinguished by its elongate, sometimes curved (rather than round) sori, which are covered by an indusium attached on one side [12].

Common ladyfern is a circumpolar species, occurring from Alaska to the Atlantic, south to California, Texas, and Florida [38].  The variety cyclosorum is found from Alaska south to California; variety michauxii occurs from Labrador and Newfoundland west to northern Saskatchewan and south to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Iowa [12].

More info for the terms: fire regime, habitat type

Common ladyfern often occurs on wet sites that burn infrequently.  The redcedar/common ladyfern habitat type is characterized by infrequent (> 200 years), low-intensity fires [3]. Common ladyfern sprouts from surviving rhizomes following fire. FIRE REGIMES : Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under "Find FIRE REGIMES".

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More info for the terms: fern, frond, geophyte, sporangia

Cryptophyte (geophyte) Sporangia on the underside of northwestern common ladyfern fronds. Photo by Charles Webber © California Academy of Sciences.

More info for the term: cover

Common ladyfern is found growing in meadows, open thickets, moist woods, and occasionally in swamps [12].  In West Virginia it occurred in marshy areas where water stood 2 to 4 inches deep (5.0 to 10.2 cm), even in the dry season [9].  It commonly grows in the understory of western redcedar, western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), white spruce (Picea glauca), and black spruce [4].  It may reach 50 to 100 percent cover under some redcedar stands where seepage maintains high soil moisture [36]. Elevations at which common ladyfern occurs vary by geographic location as follows: Location          Elevation                Arizona           7,000 to 9,000 feet (2,134-2,743 m) [21] California        4,000 to 9,500 feet (1,219-2,896 m) [26]  Idaho             4,100 to 4,300 feet (1,250-1,311 m) [34]  Utah              7,400 to 10,500 feet (2,250-3,200 m) [38] Vermont           1,600 to 2,200 feet (480-670 m) [33]    West Virginia     1,100 to feet (334 m) [9] British Columbia  2,950 feet (900) [7]   Ontario           1,000 feet (305 m) [7]            

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This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

     5  Balsam fir
    12  Black spruce
    16  Aspen
    20  White pine - northern red oak - red maple
    21  Eastern white pine
    22  White pine - hemlock
    23  Eastern hemlock
    25  Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch
    26  Sugar maple - basswood
    31  Red spruce - sugar maple - beech
    32  Red spruce
    33  Red spruce - balsam fir
    35  Paper birch - red spruce - balsam fir
    37  Northern white cedar
    52  White oak - black oak - northern red oak
    53  White oak
    55  Northern red oak
    60  Beech - sugar maple
   201  White spruce
   202  White spruce - paper birch
   204  Black spruce
   205  Mountain hemlock
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   207  Red fir
   212  Western larch
   213  Grand fir
   215  Western white pine
   217  Aspen
   221  Red alder
   223  Sitka spruce
   224  Western hemlock
   225  Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
   226  Coastal true fir - hemlock
   227  Western redcedar - western hemlock
   228  Western redcedar
   229  Pacific Douglas-fir
   230  Douglas-fir - western hemlock
   232  Redwood
   237  Interior ponderosa pine
   243  Sierra Nevada mixed conifer
   244  Pacific ponderosa pine - Douglas-fir
   251  White spruce
   252  Paper birch
   253  Black spruce - white spruce
   254  Black spruce - paper birch

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch
   FRES19  Aspen - birch
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES22  Western white pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES24  Hemlock - Sitka spruce
   FRES25  Larch
   FRES27  Redwood
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES37  Mountain meadows

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This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the term: forest

   K001  Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
   K002  Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
   K003  Silver fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K004  Fir - hemlock forest
   K006  Redwood forest
   K007  Red fir forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K013  Cedar - hemlock - pine forest
   K014  Grand fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K017  Black Hills pine forest
   K018  Pine - Douglas-fir forest
   K020  Spruce - fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K025  Alder - ash forest
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest
   K102  Beech - maple forest
   K104  Appalachian oak forest
   K108  Northern hardwoods - spruce forest

More info for the term: forest

The fronds of common ladyfern provide a food source for grizzly bears [5,19,30].  Roosevelt elk consume common ladyfern in the fall on the Olympic Peninsula, but it is not a major food species [32].  It is listed as fair elk and deer food in the Olympic National Forest of Washington [14].  Common ladyfern contains filicic acid and therefore may be poisonous to some classes of livestock [14,28].

More info for the terms: association, forest, habitat type

Common ladyfern occurs as a dominant or subdominant in the following habitat
type (hts), plant association (pas), riparian site type (rst), and
community type (cts) classifications:

     Area             Classification                    Authority

n Wisconsin            forest hts               Kotar and others 1988
Washington: Mt         forest pas               Moir and others 1988
  Rainier Natl Park
c, e Montana           riparian veg, rst,       Boggs and others 1989
                       cts, hts                 
n Idaho                forest cts, hts          Cooper and others 1991
Alaska: Kenai          forest cts               Reynolds 1990
  peninsula
OR: Willamette Valley  forest cts               Thilenius 1968

More info for the term: fern

Fern

More info for the terms: presence, scarification, tree

Silvicultural treatments have had variable effects on common ladyfern.  In
western Montana common ladyfern was absent from logged redcedar (Thuja
plicata) sites, but in black spruce (Picea mariana) clearcuts in
Ontario, Canada, common ladyfern was present only on the logged sites [8].
Common ladyfern is a major competing species in boreal and sub-boreal spruce
(Picea spp.) forests.  Scarification decreases presence and height of
common ladyfern, thereby benefiting tree regeneration [7].

Common ladyfern may indicate high mass wasting potential when found growing
vigorously or in significant numbers (coverage of 10 percent or more).
Its absence, however, does not imply slope stability [27].

     AL  AK  AZ  AR  CA  CO  CT  DE  FL  GA
     ID  IL  IN  IA  KS  KY  LA  ME  MD  MA
     MI  MN  MS  MO  MT  NH  NJ  NY  NC  ND
     OH  OR  PA  RI  SC  SD  TN  TX  UT  VT
     VA  WA  WV  WI  WY  BC  LB  MB  NB  NF
     ON  PQ  SK

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Common ladyfern fronds began dropping in early October in Oregon, apparently as a result of frost.  Usually all fronds have dropped by November [10].

More info for the terms: cover, frequency, severity

Fire decreases common ladyfern cover and frequency on drier sites, but sprouting is likely on subhygric sites [20].  Common ladyfern did not survive a moderate severity fire in mature western red cedar and western hemlock stands in northern Idaho[34].

survivor species; on-site surviving rhizomes

More info for the terms: eruption, sporangia

Common ladyfern reproduces by rhizomes and spores.  The spores disperse from the sporangia (spore-bearing case), pictured above. Following the eruption of Mount St. Helens, common ladyfern sprouted from axillary buds of transported rhizomes [1].

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This species can be found in the following regions of the western United States (according to the Bureau of Land Management classification of Physiographic Regions of the western United States):

    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    3  Southern Pacific Border
    4  Sierra Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau
   13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont
   15  Black Hills Uplift

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More info for the terms: climax, cover, herb, shrub, succession, tree

Common ladyfern can colonize cracks in rocks and crevices between rocks, making it a true pioneer species.  More frequently it occurs as a dominant on perennially wet soil with other herbs.  It can survive severe battering if roots are protected and in constant contact with water [10]. Common ladyfern is not a pioneer species in Sitka spruce floodplains on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.  It appears initially in the young seral stage under the cover of red alder (Alnus rubra), and increases in cover value from the young seral to the mature climax stage.  It is a dominant herb in these mature climax floodplain forests dominated by Sitka spruce and western hemlock [11].  In Sitka spruce-western hemlock forests of southeast Alaska, common ladyfern, along with spreading woodfern (Dryopteris austriaca) and bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), tends to dominate in the early stages of succession (1 to 25 years after logging) on moist microsites where tree and shrub regeneration is sparse [2].  In Glacier National Park, Montana, common ladyfern is characteristically restricted to climax cedar-hemlock forests [18].

More info for the term: fern

Athyrium filix-femina var. angustum (Willdenow) G. Lawson, northern common ladyfern
Athyrium filix-femina var. asplenioides (Michaux) Farwell, southern common ladyfern
Athyrium filix-femina var. californicum Butters, southwestern common ladyfern
Athyrium filix-femina var. cyclosorum Ruprecht, northwestern common ladyfern [40]
Athyrium filix-femina var. cyclosorum (Ledeb.) Moore
Athyrium filix-femina var. michauxii (Spreng.) Farw.
Athyrium filix-femina var. michauxii (Spreng.) Farw. forma michauxii
Athyrium filix-femina var. michauxii (Spreng.) Farw. forma elatius (Link) Clute
Athyrium filix-femina var. michauxii (Spreng.) Farw. forma rubellum (Gilbert) Farw.
Athyrium filix-femina var. michauxii (Spreng.) Farw. forma laurentianum (Butters) Fern. [12,39]
Athyrium filix-femina var. rubellum Gilbert
Athyrium filix-femina var. sitchense (Rupr.) Ledeb. (documented in [37])

The scientific name for common ladyfern is Athyrium filix-femina (L.) Roth (Dryopteridaceae)
[12,39,40]. Recognized infrataxa are as follows [37]:

Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) Clausen, subarctic common ladyfern
Athyrium filix-femina subsp. asplenioides (Michx.) Hulten, asplenium common ladyfern
Athyrium filix-femina subsp. cyclosorum (Rupr.) C. Chr, subarctic common ladyfern