Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Lygodium japonicum (Thunb.) Sw.
- Family: Curly-grass (Schizaeaceae)
- Spores: June-September
- Field Marks: The genus Lygodium consists of viny ferns with palmately or pinnately compound leaves. Japanese climbing fern has pinnately divided leaves.
- Habitat: Low woods, thickets, along rivers and streams.
- Habit: Climbing or twining perennial fern, sometimes forming vine-like clumps, with slender, creeping rhizomes.
- Stems: Climbing or twining, slender, from several to many feet long.
- Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, up to 8 inches long, the leaflets triangular-lanceolate, pointed at the tip, the fertile segments sometimes deeply cleft, with sporangia in double rows.
- Notes: The similar native climbing fern (L. palmatum) has palmately compound leaves.
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