Christmas Fern

Polystichum acrostichoides, commonly called the Christmas fern, is a fern in the family Dryopteridaceae native to eastern North America, ranging from Nova Scotia west to Minnesota and south to Florida and eastern Texas, named because its evergreen fronds are often still green at Christmas time. It grows in a tufted pattern with dark green, leathery fronds thirty to eighty centimetres long and five to twelve centimetres wide, bearing twenty to thirty five pairs of spiny edged pinnae with small thumblike lobes at their base, on a dark brown to black stipe covered in light brown scales. Its fertile, spore bearing pinnae are noticeably smaller than the sterile pinnae on the same frond. It is one of the most abundant ferns in its range, favouring moist, shady woodlands, stream banks and rocky slopes, and holds a secure conservation status.