Green in Winter: Christmas Fern

Polystichum acrostichoides grows in a variety of woodlands and is especially at home on north and east facing slopes. The acrostic fertile portion of the blade normally withers away after sporulation, so it is only occasionally visible in winter (acrostic = densely fertile, as in Acrostichum, a tropical fern genus) .

This attractive, native fern has blades that are coriaceous (thick and leathery), stipes (lower stems) that are densely scaly, and pinnae (side branches) with auricles (ears) near their proximal end (nearest the point of attachment).

Photographed on December 24, 2011 at Potato Creek State Park, St. Joseph County, Indiana

"A beautiful form has as much life at one season as another."

Henry David Thoreau

Lake Michigan Transmogrified

This is what Lake Michigan looks like when cold air picks it up and drops it on evergreens (if you don’t live near the U.S. Great Lakes, Google “lake effect”). It’s always fun to wake up to the beauty of new snow flocking everything. Here are some of the evergreens in my yard.

Canadian Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)

Austrian Pine (Pinus nigra) with the interesting results of Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker visits

Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea)

White Spruce (Picea glauca)

Blue Spruce (Picea pungens)

Norway Spruce (Picea abies)

Arbor Vitae (Thuja occidentalis)

White Pine (Pinus strobus)

Holly (Ilex sp.)

Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides)

Marginal Fern (Dryopteris marginalis)

Amazingly, these trees were purchased as seedlings for about one dollar apiece from the St. Joseph County Soil and Water Conservation District in northern Indiana.

“Let a slight snow come over the earth, and the tracks of men

will show how little the woods and fields are frequented.”

Henry David Thoreau Journal, February 3, 1857.

Frozen Fronds

Yesterday's failed search for signs of spring was a chilly one, but there was beauty in the forest, even so. This is good old Christmas Fern, Polystichum acrostichoides, one of many plants that are green all winter. I enjoyed seeing it embedded in ice, but have to admit I'm ready for a break from ice and snow. These are not DSLR pictures.