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.