| Author | (Kunze) Small | |
| Distribution | The lower Coastal Plain, from Chowan County on the north to the SC line, ranging inland about 50 miles at most. Absent from the Outer Banks.
This is a Southern Coastal Plain species, ranging north to eastern NC, south to southern FL, and west to eastern TX.
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| Abundance | Uncommon and somewhat local near the coast north to Carteret County, and very rare farther north. This is a Watch List species. | |
| Habitat | This is a wetland or semi-wetland species, growing in swampy forests or moist maritime forests, particularly where marl is just below the surface. It is not truly typical of blackwater floodplains or strongly acidic soils (despite what some references say); most sites in NC tend to be near outcroppings of marl or where this calcareous material lies near the surface. | |
| Phenology | Fruits from June to September. | |
| Identification | This is a rather striking fern of moist coastal forests, with a shiny, thick evergreen blade. It has a fairly short stipe, but the blade is quite long and lanceolate, often about 2 feet long, if not somewhat longer; it averages about 8 inches wide. The blade is cut pinnate-pinnatifid, almost bipinnate. The several dozen pairs of pinnae are mostly alternate, and the pinnules are oblong and rounded at the tip. The sori are rounded and in rows under pinnules, but in this species they are limited to the uppermost handful of pinnae, which are narrower than the sterile lower ones. This is an important character separating it from D. celsa, which also grows in moist, swampy forests; that species has the sori present under most of the pinnae on the fertile fronds, which should be present in the same clump as some sterile fronds. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
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| Other Common Name(s) | Southern Shield-fern | |
| State Rank | S2 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | W1 | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACW link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
