Dryopteris bissetiana (Baker) C. Chr.

Beaded wood fern

Etymology For a collector in Miyanosh'ta, Japan, Mr. Bissett, otherwise unidentified by J.G. Baker.
Description Rhizome: short-creeping, clumping, scaly.
Frond: 45 cm high by 30 cm wide, evergreen, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 3:1 to 1:2.
Stipe: grooved, scales black, narrow triangular, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 3-pinnate only at the base, deltate-ovate to lanceolate, leathery, embossed upper surface, costa with small bullate scales below.
Pinnae: 15 to 20 pair, lowest pinnae anadromous; pinnules triangular, curved outwards, almost entire above to pinnate below, the first lower pinnule of the lowest pinnae twice the lenth of the first upper pinnule; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae; margins serrate, slightly reflexed; veins free, forked, visible on both surfaces.
Sori: round, submarginal to medial, ultimate segments each bearing one sorus, indusium: reniform, greenish at maturity, attached at a sinus, sporangia: brownish, maturity: fall.
Culture Habitat: forest floor, edge of mountain forests. Distribution: Japan, Korea, China. Hardy to -25°C, USDA Zone 5.
Synonyms
Nephrodium bissetianum Baker
Polypodium setosum Thunb
Dryopteris varia (L.) Kuntze var. setosa (Thunb.) Ohwi
Polystichum bissetianum Nakai
Polystichum sacrosanctum Koidzumi, misapplied
Dryopteris bissetiana
Dryopteris bissetiana. Frond; the embossed appearance (seen more clearly in the click-through enlargement) of the upper surface is distinctive.  Photo: Tom Stuart
Dryopteris bissetiana
Dryopteris bissetiana. Pinna; click through for a blowup of the center.  Photo: Tom Stuart
Dryopteris bissetiana
Dryopteris bissetiana.  Illustration from The Cultivated Species of the Fern Genus Dryopteris in the United States, Barbara Joe Hoshizaki and Kenneth A. Wilson, American Fern Journal, 89, 1, (1999), with permission.
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