Dryopteris cycadina (Franchet & Savatier) C. Christensen

Black wood fern, shaggy wood fern

Etymology Cycad-like, referring to its radial symmetry and pinnate fronds.
Description Rhizome: short-creeping.
Frond: 100 cm high by 20 cm wide, evergreen, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 5:2.
Stipe: grooved, pale brown, scales black-brown, the largest 2 cm, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 1-pinnate, oblanceolate, leathery, sparsely scaly below, more densely on the costa, rachis scales black, costae scales brown, glabrous above.
Pinnae: 20 to 30 pair, lanceolate to linear, sessile, coarsely toothed; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae; margins coarsely toothed; veins single to a tooth.
Sori: round, nearer the costa than the margin, in 2 or 3 irregular rows, indusium: reniform, withering, attached at a sinus, sporangia: brownish, maturity: midsummer.
Culture Habitat: humus-rich mountain slopes usually in dense forests at 1700-2600 m alt. Distribution: Japan, China, Himalayas. Hardy to -25°C, USDA Zone 5.
Synonyms
Aspidium cycadinum Franch. & Sav.
Dryopteris atrata (Kunze) Ching, misapplied
Dryopteris hirtipes (Bl.) Kuntze, misapplied
Dryopteris cycadina
Dryopteris cycadina. Habit. The click-through image is a close-up of one frond.  Photo: Tom Stuart
Dryopteris cycadina
Dryopteris cycadina. Fertile pinna; click to see a magnified portion.  Photo: Tom Stuart
Dryopteris cycadina
Dryopteris cycadina.  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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