Broad Beech Fern

The broad beech fern, also called the southern beech fern, is a common forest fern of the family Thelypteridaceae native to the eastern United States and adjacent Ontario. Its broadly triangular fronds carry wings of leaf tissue along the stalk between the basal leaflets, forming a hexagonal shape that gives the species its name, with small, round, unprotected spore clusters. It grows from a creeping rootstock in moist, undisturbed hardwood forest, forming loose clumps of individual fronds, and its conservation status is rated Secure.