Ferns of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Shape: Goldie's Wood Fern is a large conspicuous fern of moist forests and slopes; it is one of the largest of the wood ferns with upright arching oval to triangular pinnate-pinnatifid fronds growing 3 to 4 feet tall.

Fronds: Fronds are bright green with a paler green edge when young, giving a two-tone effect. The blades abruptly taper to the tip and bear 12+/- pairs of pinnae. There is no visual difference between the fronds that have fertile sori and those that may not. There are no aromatic glands. The central rachis is green with pale tan scales. The grooved stipe is quite long, forming 1/3 the length of the frond. The scales of the stipe are distinctive, being broad, tan brown with a dark center.

Pinnae: The pinnae are lance-shaped, broad in the middle and pointed at the tip with the basal pinnae up to 8 inches long, and arranged alternately on the rachis. The division pattern is pinnate-pinnatifid and sometime bi-pinnate near the base.

Pinnules: There will be 18+/- pairs of pinnules on the pinnae with rounded tips that are forward pointing. Margins of the pinnules are slightly toothed where the vein approaches the margin.

Fertility: The sori are evenly spaced on the back of the pinnule near the mid-vein, multiple rows on the longer pinnules and down to 1 row on the smallest pinnules. They are rounded with a kidney shaped indusia covering them.

Fiddleheads have the same glossy dark scales that the stipe maintains during the growing season.

Habitat: Goldie's Wood Fern grows from a short rhizome in moist rich soil, neural to acidic, in partial to full shade. Because the plant is long-lived the clump can be difficult to move. Offshoots from the rhizome can form dense colonies over time.

Names: Goldie's Wood Fern is named for its discover, John Goldie, Scottish botanist (1793-1886) who collected the plant on a trip to North America, returning to Scotland with samples in 1819. The genus name Dryopteris, is derived from two Greek words, drys, meaning 'tree', and pteris, meaning 'fern'. Many members of this genus are commonly referred to as "wood" ferns and hence the name. The species, goldiana, is as referred to above - named for John Goldie. The author names for the plant classification are more complex: The first to publish information was ‘Hook.’ who is William Hooker, (1785-1865), English Botanist, author, collector, Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow and the first director of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew.

Hooker's work was not complete and was amended by John Goldie (referred to above), but the most complete classification is now assigned to ‘A.Gray’ is for Asa Gray (1810-1888), American botanist, Professor of Natural History at Harvard and instrumental in unifying plant knowledge of North America and author of Gray’s Manual - Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, from New England to Wisconsin and South to Ohio and Pennsylvania Inclusive. He was a student of John Torrey and became his assistant. His first book, Elements of Botany was the first text to use the new Natural System of classification. He and Torrey collaborated for the remainder of their lives.

Comparisons: There are many wood ferns. Other members of the Wood Fern Family found in the Garden are Spinulose Woodfern, Dryopteris carthusiana; Marginal Wood Fern, Dryopteris marginalis; and Crested Wood Fern, Dryopteris cristata. Formerly in the Garden was Male Fern, Dryopteris filix-mas;. The key to Goldie's is 1) no aromatic glands, 2) blades pinnate-pinnatifid, 3) scales broad to narrow, not hairy, 4) scales tan-brown with a dark center, 5) sori close to the mid-vein, 6) blade large, ovate, arching back, tapers abruptly to the tip.