Dryopteris celsa (W. Palmer) Small

Log fern

Etymology Celsa means: high, lofty, tall, prominent, erect, raised, elevated. Take your pick.
Description Rhizome: short-creeping.
Frond: 120 cm high by 30 cm wide, deciduous, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 2:1.
Stipe: grooved, scaly at least at base; scales scattered, dark brown or tan with dark central stripe, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 1-pinnate-pinnatifid, ovate-lanceolate, gradually tapering to tip, herbaceous, linear to ovate scales below, absent above.
Pinnae: 15 to 20 pair, anadromous on the basal pinnae; basal pinnae linear-oblong, much reduced; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae; margins margins crenately toothed; veins free, forked.
Sori: round, in 1 row between midrib and margin, indusium: reniform, at a sinus, sporangia: brownish.
Culture Habitat: seepage slopes, hammocks and logs in swamps. Distribution: eastern, southeastern United States. Hardy to -25°C, USDA Zone 5.
Synonyms
Dryopteris goldiana (Hooker ex Goldie) A. Gray subsp. celsa W. Palmer
Dryopteris celsa
Dryopteris celsa. Blade, rhizome, stipe and pinna.  Illustration by Edgar Paulton, from How to Know the Ferns and Fern Allies, John T. Mickel, © 1979 Wm. C. Brown Co.
Notes
Parents Dryopteris celsa is a fertile hybrid between D. goldiana and D. ludoviciana.
Dryopteris celsa
Dryopteris celsa.  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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