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D. ludoviciana resources
Descriptive
eight diagnostic photoseight diagnostic photos
Distribution
United StatesUnited States
Flora
Flora of North AmericaFlora of North America
Herbarium
two specimenstwo specimens
Monograph
Hoshizaki and WilsonHoshizaki and Wilson
Photo index
habit and close-upshabit and close-ups

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    Woodwardia
 
Dryopteris ludoviciana (Kunze) Small

Southern wood fern

Etymology Ludoviciana is the Latinized version of the word Louisiana.
Description Rhizome: short creeping, branching, forming clumps.
Frond: 120 cm high by 30 cm wide, evergreen in warmer areas, somewhat dimorphic, the fertile pinnae (in upper part of frond) narrowed, blade/stipe ratio: 5:2.
Stipe: grooved, scaly at base, scales scattered, brown, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 1-pinnate-pinnatifid, lanceolate, herbaceous, linear to ovate scales below, absent above.
Pinnae: nearly in plane of blade, lance-oblong; fertile pinnae in distal 1/2 of leaf, distinctly narrower than proximal vegetative pinnae; pinnules basal pinnules slightly shorter than adjacent pinnules, basal basiscopic pinnule slightly longer than basal acroscopic pinnule; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae; margins serrate; veins free, forked.
Sori: round, midway between midvein and margin, indusium: reniform, at a sinus, sporangia: tan.
Culture Habitat: swamps and wet woods . Distribution: southeastern North America. Hardy to -20°C, USDA Zone 6.
Synonyms
Aspidium ludovicianum Kunze
Dryopteris floridana (Hooker) Kunze
Filix floridana Farwell
Lastrea floridanum J. Sm.
Nephrodium floridanum Hook.
Dryopteris ludoviciana
Dryopteris ludoviciana. Habit: creeping, clumps of fronds.  Photo © Shirley Denton, from her web site, with permission.
Dryopteris ludoviciana
Dryopteris ludoviciana. Rhizome, pinna, blade.  Illustration by Edgar Paulton, from How to Know the Ferns and Fern Allies, John T. Mickel, © 1979 Wm. C. Brown Co.
Dryopteris ludoviciana
Dryopteris ludoviciana.  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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