Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Osmunda cinnamomea L.
- Family: Royal Fern (Osmundaceae)
- Spores: May-June
- Field Marks: This fern, with its large leaves up to 5 feet long, has cinnamon-colored hairs covering its leaf stalks and its reproductive bodies.
- Habitat: Wet ground, often near springs; low woods, swamps, wet thickets, bayheads, marshes, rocky ledges.
- Habit: Perennial fern with a thick rootstock.
- Stems: Underground, widely creeping.
- Leaves: Sterile leaves up to 5 feet long, 1 1/2 pinnate, each segment of the leaf more or less rounded at the tip; leaf stalk up to 1 foot long, covered with dense cinnamon-colored hairs.
- Reproductive Structures: Spore-bearing sori densely crowded on the back of much reduced fertile leaves; sporangia cinnamon-colored.
- Notes: This large, handsome fern is a popular ornamental.
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