Etymology Areolata means pitted.

Description Rhizome: long-creeping, blackish, scales brown, dense.
Frond: 70 cm high by 20 cm wide, deciduous, dimorphic, sterile fronds 10 cm shorter, emerging first, fertile midsummer,, blade/stipe ratio: 1:1.
Stipe: sterile: reddish brown below, straw-colored above; fertile: darker, to purple-black, sparsely set brown scales, vascular bundles: 2 elongate or peanut-shaped at stipe base, merging above to a tripartite structure.
Blade: 1-pinnate fertile, sterile less divided above where it is winged along the rachis, lanceolate, thin-textured, bright green later, reddish on emergence, scaly-glandular upon emergence but soon glabrous.
Pinnae: 7 to 12 pair, sterile alternate, lanceolate, fertile subopposite, contracted; margins minutely serrate to crenate; veins netted near the costa, free near the margin.
Sori: in chainlike rows, sunken into the lamina, but distinct, along the costae, indusium: flap-like, tucked under sporangia, disintegrating with age, opening towards the costa, sporangia: reddish-brown, maturity: late summer to early fall.

Culture Habitat: acidic bogs, seeps, and wet woods, rarely on rock of siliceous cliffs and ledges on northern edge of range. Distribution: coastal eastern North America and throughout southeastern North America. Hardy to -35°C, USDA Zone 3.

Distinctive Characteristics Superficial resemblance to Onoclea sensibilis, but distinguished by very different fertile fronds (linear sori vs. beads), sterile pinnae simple with serrate margins here while O. sensibilis has pinnatifid pinnae with entire margins on the lower frond.

Synonyms
Acrostichum areolatum Linnaeus
Lorinseria areolata (Linnaeus) C. Presl
Woodwardia angustifolia J.E. Smith, invalid