Bracken Fern

(Pteridium aquilinum)

Characteristics

Fiddlehead	Leaves	Sori

Growing habits: Erect terrestrial fern

Root anatomy: Long, creeping scaly rhizomatous roots, septate trichomes

Leaf anatomy: Fronds emerging from subterranean rhizomes, widely spaced, erect or slightly curved, widely triangular to ovate, tripinnatifid or tripinnate, red towards base and yellow towards top, spore-producing sori along underside margin

Reproduction: Numerous microscopic spores from sori

_{References: Weeds of the South by Charles T. Bryson and Michael S. DeFelice}