Species: Dryopteris cristata
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Buckler Fern is an herbaceous perennial with clustered fronds arising from a short rhizome. The stalked fronds have narrowly elliptic blades pinnately divided into numerous pairs of pinnately lobed leaflets, or pinnae. The fertile fronds, 3-6 dm long, are erect and deciduous, while the sterile ones are evergreen, smaller, and more lax. Clusters of spores, or sori are borne along either side of the pinnae midveins on the underside of fertile fronds. Sori are covered by a whitish, broadly horseshoe-shaped membrane, or indusium.
Classification
Filicopsida
Filicales
Dryopteridaceae
Dryopteris
NatureServe
Classification
Ecology and Life History
Buckler Fern is an herbaceous perennial with clustered fronds arising from a short rhizome. The stalked fronds have narrowly elliptic blades pinnately divided into numerous pairs of pinnately lobed leaflets, or pinnae. The fertile fronds, 3-6 dm long, are erect and deciduous, while the sterile ones are evergreen, smaller, and more lax. Clusters of spores, or sori are borne along either side of the pinnae midveins on the underside of fertile fronds. Sori are covered by a whitish, broadly horseshoe-shaped membrane, or indusium.