| Description | An easy to grow native fern. Sensitive fern gets its name from the tendency of the fronds to wither at the first slight frost and it’s paired bead-like spore cases. Has broader fronds with less divisions than other ferns. |
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| Pronunciation | (dry-OP-ter-iss) |
| Plant Type | All Plants, Ferns - Hardy |
| Hardiness Zone | 2-10 |
| Sunlight | tolerates sun with adequate moisture |
| Moisture | Prefers moist and tolerates very wet conditions. |
| Soil & Site | Found naturally occurring in marshes, ditches and swamps, wet meadows and stream banks. The soil is usually slightly acidic to neutral. |
| Temperature | The fronds will wither and die at the first frost. |
| Flowers | Ferns are non-flowering plants producing a seed-like structure called a spore. |
| Fruit | The Bead ferns have pairs of bead like spore cases. |
| Leaves | The deciduous fronds are: broad, leathery green, almost triangular, sterile fronds are deeply pinnatified to bipinnatifida and thin texture. Most pinnae are nearly opposite. The rachis is smooth, pale tan or yellow. Fronds turn yellow or russet in fall. The fertile fronds emerge in late summer, are woody with bead-like segments, brown and persist into winter. The fronds arise from long creeping, branching rhizomes. |
| Dimensions | Reaches 1-3 feet and can rapidly spread by rhizomes. |
| Propagation | spores or division |
| Misc Facts | This is a monotypic genus. Gleason and Cronquist place this fern in the Onocleaceae family. |
| Notes & Reference | #69-Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, North Carolina State University and Connecticut Botanical Society web sites) |
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