(fragrant woodfern)
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Photo of Dryopteris fragrans by Eric Groth
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Fragrant woodfern is a leathery, tough fern commonly found growing in clusters in rocky slopes and outcrops from the lowlands to the alpine zone, sometimes scattered in rocky tundra or openings in the forest on steep south-facing slopes. The
pinnae are slightly angled upwards. Each plant will have many persistent, curling dead leaves. The outline of the whole frond is long-
elliptic, broadest at the middle. The fronds are 2-3
pinnate. The stem (
stipe) is short, with many papery brown or rust-brown scales the whole length (largest at the base). All leaves are fertile in
D. fragrans, the backs dotted with rust-brown
sori. Covering the
sori is a kidney-shaped, white
indusium which becomes brown and falls off early in the season. Plants are often short, but can grow to 30 cm in protected sites. Fragrant wood fern has many glands and, as the name implies, is sweet-smelling. It can be mistaken for
Woodsia ilvensis, which is similarly shaped fronds and found in rocky situations, but
D. fragrans is coarser, stouter, and has kidney-shaped
indusia while
W. ilvensis only has dissected hairs around its
sori (use a hand lens!).
This species is perennial, with evergreen leaves. Spores are typically produced in early to mid-summer.
Dryopteris fragrans is, like all ferns, a spore-producing plant. Spores germinate into haploid
gametophytes, which can be fertilized to become new, diploid ferns. Spores germinate into minute, heart-shaped
gametophytes, which can produce full-grown ferns if fertilized. The mating system of fragrant woodfern (whether it is out-crossing or self-fertilizing) has not been studied, and little is known about its reproductive biology.
Fragrant woodfern has an incompletely circumpolar distribution (circumboreal-montane). In North America, this species is widely distributed in the East, from Greenland to Maine and the Great Lakes, with a more northern range in the west, across Alaska and Yukon to the adjacent edges of British Columbia and Northwest Territory. Fragrant woodfern occurs in montane areas of Alaska statewide, except for the southern coastal areas, including the Alaska Peninsula, southeast Alaska and the southern Kenai Peninsula. Dryopteris fragrans occurs most frequently in the northeastern quadrant of Denali, and is absent or rare south of the Alaska Range crest in the park.
Details are shown in the Plots & Charts found at right, depicting recent Denali data.
Fragrant woodfern is found in the subalpine and alpine in Denali, typically on steep slopes. The average site for this species is on a slope of 21 degrees. This species prefers southern aspects.
Details are shown in the Plots & Charts found at right. For more on how to interpret these figures, visit Understanding Data Presented.
Well-drained moist to dry sites.
