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Anchistea
Anchistea is a genus of leptosporangiate ferns in the family Blechnaceae. It has only one species, Anchistea virginica (synonym Woodwardia virginica) the Virginia chain fern, which has long creeping, scaly, underground stems or rhizomes giving rise to tall (up to about 4 feet, 120 centimetres) widely separated, deciduous, single leaves. In contrast, the leaves of Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, which can be mistaken for A. virginica, grow in a group from a crown. Also in contrast to O. cinnamomeum the leaves are monomorphic without distinct fertile fronds. The lower petiole or stipe is dark purple to black, shiny and swollen, the upper rachis is dull green. The leaf blade is green and lanceolate, composed of 12 to 23 paired, alternate pinnatifid pinnae. The pinnae are subdivided into 15 to 20 paired segments that are ovate to oblong. The lower rachis is naked for about half its length.
The plant is occasionally cultivated as a greenhouse or garden ornamental. Hardy to USDA Zone 3.
Endemic to eastern North America from Florida to Nova Scotia and west to Michigan and Illinois. A. virginica is mostly found on the Atlantic coastal plain and Piedmont although it also grows in the eastern Great Lakes region as far west as Illinois. The Flora of North America website has a distribution map.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Anchistea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
