Genus: Matteuccia

fiddlehead fern

This fern genus is represented by only one species in New England. Its fertile and sterile leaves are quite different; sterile leaves are once-divided, while fertile leaves are hardened, brown when mature, and have sori hidden beneath rolled-under leaflet margins. Reference: Johnson (1993).

Family

Onocleaceae (sensitive fern family)

This Genus’s Species in New England:

• Matteuccia struthiopteris

Visit this genus in the Dichotomous Key