Monilophytes (ferns): Leptosporangiate Ferns (true ferns): Polypodiales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Anchistea virginica
FAMILY
Blechnaceae
Go to FSUS key
Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
If sori are not present, this species can be confused with some other ferns, especially Log Fern (Dryopteris celsa) and perhaps a few others. However, essentially all other similar species have the fronds growing in clumps, as opposed to arising singly from the ground. This is one of the first species to "green up" following a fire in pocosin habitats... Learn more at Vascular Plants of North Carolina.
Sterile plants of Osmundastrum cinnamomeum are sometimes confused with Anchistea virginica, which also has rather coarse, pinnate-pinnatifid leaves and grows in similar wet, acid places... Read more in Weakley's Flora (2023)
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Woodwardia virginica
FAMILY
Blechnaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)
Anchistea virginica
SYNONYMOUS WITH Flora of North America
Woodwardia virginica
SYNONYMOUS WITH The Ferns and Lycophytes of Texas (Diggs & Lipscomb, 2014)
Woodwardia virginica
SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 012-01-001:
Woodwardia virginica FAMILY Blechnaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH Ferns of the Southeastern States (Small, 1938)
Anchistea virginica
COMMON NAME:
Virginia Chain-fern
To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.
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USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_anvi6_001_lvd
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USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA Wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide pnd_wovi_002_lvd
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JK Marlow jkm160416_220
April Lowndes County GA
Fronds upright, scattered along rhizomes and emerging individually, per Peterson Field Guide to Ferns of Northeastern and Central North America.
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JK Marlow jkm160416_222
April Lowndes County GA
Lacking the cinnamon tufts of tomentum present in pinnae axils of Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, per Weakley's Flora (2022).
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JK Marlow jkm160416_335
April Lowndes County GA
Blade leathery, glossy, with around 15 pairs of closely spaced pinnae, per Peterson Field Guide to Ferns of Northeastern and Central North America.
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JK Marlow jkm0505s_36
May Williamsburg County SC
Stipe is dark purple-brown, per Peterson Field Guide to Ferns of Northeastern and Central North America.
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JK Marlow jkm150529_104
May Spartanburg County SC
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Emily B. Sessa ebswvirginica_1119
June
Small veins form a row of areoles each side of midvein; all others are free, per Field Guide to the Ferns and Other Pteridophytes of Georgia (Snyder & Bruce, 1986).
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Emily B. Sessa ebswvirginica_4188
July
Sori chainlike, elongate, along midvein & at tip of pinnae lobes, per Peterson Field Guide to Ferns of Northeastern and Central North America.
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Emily B. Sessa ebswvirginica_4203
July
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Richard and Teresa Ware rtw_w_virginica_virchain2
August
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JK Marlow jkm081009_317
October Bamberg County SC
Lisa Matthews Memorial Bay
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JK Marlow s081009_b
October Bamberg County SC
Lisa Matthews Memorial Bay
Pinnae lanceolate. Lobes short, blunt, smooth-margined, per Field Guide to the Ferns and Other Pteridophytes of Georgia (Snyder & Bruce, 1986).
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JK Marlow s081009_b2
October Bamberg County SC
Lisa Matthews Memorial Bay
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JK Marlow s081009_b3
October Bamberg County SC
Lisa Matthews Memorial Bay
Sori on each side of pinnae midrib, also paralleling pinnule midveins, per Field Guide to the Ferns and Other Pteridophytes of Georgia (Snyder & Bruce, 1986).
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Anchistea virginica
FAMILY
Blechnaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Woodwardia virginica
FAMILY
Blechnaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)
Anchistea virginica
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Flora of North America
Woodwardia virginica
SYNONYMOUS WITH
The Ferns and Lycophytes of Texas (Diggs & Lipscomb, 2014)
Woodwardia virginica
SYNONYMOUS WITH
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 012-01-001:
Woodwardia virginica
FAMILY
Blechnaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Ferns of the Southeastern States (Small, 1938)
Anchistea virginica
1958
Fern/Fern ally
Perennial
Habitat: Moist to wet, acid, organic soils, such as bogs, blackwater bottomlands, pocosins, sometimes in standing water, as in periodically flooded coastal plain depression ponds, wet hammocks, per Weakley's Flora
Native to the Carolinas & Georgia
Common in Coastal Plain (rare elsewhere in GA-NC-SC)
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.
Click here to see a map showing all occurrences known to SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria. (Zoom in to see more detail.)
LEAVES:
Deciduous
1-pinnate-pinnatifid
Leaves in rows, spaced along a long-creeping rhizome
RHIZOMES? STOLONS?
A thick, horizontal, creeping rhizome
FRUIT:
Spring/Summer/Fall
TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!
- Field Guide to the Ferns and Other Pteridophytes of Georgia (Snyder & Bruce, 1986) p110
- The Ferns and Lycophytes of Texas (Diggs & Lipscomb, 2014) p122
- Ferns of Alabama (Short & Spaulding, 2012) p209
- Guide to the Wildflowers of SC, 2nd ed. (McMillan, Porcher, Rayner, & White; 2022) p422
- Peterson Field Guide to Ferns of Northeastern and Central North America p238
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