Dryopteris cristata (L.) A.Gray

Rhizome horizontal and short-creeping to somewhat ascending; lvs somewhat dimorphic, the deciduous fertile ones larger and more erect than the evergreen sterile ones; petiolar scales light brown, concolorous; fertile lvs mostly 3.5–8 dm, with mostly 10–25 pairs of pinnae, these 5–9 cm, to 2.5(–4) cm wide, the segments to 20 × 8 mm, often broadly confluent, the lowest pinnae reduced, broadly triangular, to about twice as long as wide; fertile pinnae twisted at an angle to the plane of the blade in life; sori midway between the midvein and the margin; sterile lvs half to three-fourths as long as the fertile; 2n=164. Marshes and wet woods; Nf. to Sask. and B.C., s. to N.C., Tenn., Io., Nebr., and Ida.; Eur.

Damp woods. Swamps, swampy woods or open shrubby wetlandsfrom sea level to 1200 metres.

Can be grown by divisions.