Athyrium felix-femina var. cyclosorum
Lady Fern

Family: Dryopteridaceae [Polypodiaceae] (Wood Fern family)

Photo taken at upper Icicle Canyon, in moist shaded woods

Sori:

indusium present, though usually small and soon dediduous, oblong or J-shaped; sori generally at least 1 mm wide or long, oblong or J-shaped, more or less not near leaf margin

Leaves:

glabrous and deciduous; blade lanceolate-elliptic to lanceolate, 2 to 3 pinnate, pinnae mostly in 20 to 35 pairs; segments deeply pinnately lobed to more or less toothed, margin not reflexed over sorus

Plant:

Traditionally the rhizomes were roasted, peeled, and eaten by western WA groups- Quileute, Quinault, and coastal Salish.

Habitat:

moist woods, meadows and swamps, lowlands to middle elevations

Distribution of species:

circumboreal, from Alaska to California, east to Texas and Florida

Distribution of genus:

more or less 100 species, generally northern temperate, especially in east Asia