Matteuccia Todaro (Woodsiaceae) Earlier placement: Polypodiaceae, Athyriaceae, Dryopteridaceae, Onocleaceae

Ostrich fern

Etymology Named after Carlo Matteucci (1811-1863), a physicist at the University of Florence, Italy and later a politician.
Description Rhizome: erect, forming a vase-like plant, leaf-scales on the runners.
Frond: deciduous, dimorphic.
Stipe: green, expanded base (trophopod), white hairs, vascular bundles: 2, lunate.
Blade: sterile: 1-pinnate-pinnatifid, elliptic, sterile: herbaceous, absent or deciduously hairy below.
Pinnae: proximal pinnae (several pairs) greatly reduced, sessile, costae shallowly grooved above, grooves not continuous from rachis to costae, segments entire, veins free.
Sori: round, covered by revolute margins, indusium: vestigial, sporangia: green.
Distinctive Characteristics The vase shape on a large plant and the ostrich feather outline of the sterile blade are enough to spot this. The persistent -- into the next year -- fertile fronds, when produced, are confirmatory. Older habitats are always composed of multiple plants produced stoloniferously.
Matteuccia
Matteuccia . Fertile fronds, one old, one new. The persistence into the second year of a fertile frond is rare among temperate ferns.  Photo by Rod Tulloss, © Environmental Commission of the Borough of Roosevelt and the Fund for Roosevelt, Inc.
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