Identifying Southwest Florida's Ferns

Bipinnate Frond

1. Are the fronds openly branched (and if it has spores, are they on a separate stalk at the tip of a blade)? YES.

That's it. There is only one fern with bipinnate fronds in the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

Osmunda regalis

(Royal Fern)

bipinnate frond

Description	openly branched fronds; pinnule edges serrated; mature fronds 2-5' tall, 10-20" wide; stipe half the frond length; light green; smallest separate leaflets have unlobed regular pinnules
Rhizome	short-creeping
Spores	sporangia are borne on a separate reduced pinnae at the top of vegetative fronds (center photo); greenish before maturity (center photo) and turning red-brown (right photo) and withering with age
Veins	free
Growth	grows in terrestrial clumps on wet and moist grounds; prefers shady to partly shady
Similar	Osmunda cinnamonea (Cinnamon Fern) has similar, separate sporangia pinnae, but the fronds are pinnate-pinnatifid