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Dryopteris cristata
Also called Crested buckler-fern, Crested Wood Fern, Crested Shield Fern, Gray Crested Shield Fern, Narrow Swamp Fern, Crested Fern
Dryopteris cristata is a perennial species of fern native to wetlands throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It is known as crested wood fern, crested buckler-fern or crested shieldfern. This plant is a tetraploid species of hybrid origin, one parent being Dryopteris ludoviciana and the other being the unknown, apparently extinct species, dubbed Dryopteris semicristata, which is also one of the presumed parents of Dryopteris carthusiana. D. cristata in turn is one of the parents of Dryopteris clintoniana, another fern of hybrid origin.
The crested wood fern is a wetland plant, needing year-round moisture. The fronds often grow quite tall, up to a meter or more in height, but are extremely narrow under most conditions.
Dryopteris hasseltii · Hay Scented Buckler Fern · Scaly Male Fern · Coastal woodfern · Mountain woodfern · Spinulose woodfern · Log fern · Cinnamon woodfern · Clinton's woodfern · Large Kidney Fern · Shield Fern · Serpent woodfern
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dryopteris cristata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
