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