Description
Bundle of 5
At a Glance: Often a major understory plant in wet forests, Deer Fern is an important winter food for deer and elk. It is medium sized, evergreen, tufted at the end of a short, stout rhizome.
Leaves: Fronds of 2 kinds: Sterile leaves: often pressed to the ground, tall or long evergreen and leathery. Stipes are purplish-brown, leaflets 35-70 pairs widely spaced, oblong, progressively reduced towards the top and bottom. Fertile leaves: similar but upright arising from center of clump, deciduous and with much narrower leaflets that are sometimes rolled in near-tubes around the sori.
SORI: spore producing structures are continuous, distributed near the margin; protected by a continuous translucent brown indusium attached close to the leaflet edge.
Growing Conditions:
| Sun/Shade Tolerance | Hydrology | Elevation Range |
| Part sun/shade 40%-60%
Shade 20%-40% |
Moist
Wet
|
Low elevations
Mid elevations
|
References:
MacKinnon, A., Pojar, J., & Alaback, P. B. (1994). Plants of the Pacific Northwest coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska. Richmond, Wash: Lone Pine Publishing.
