| Author | (Wherry) Small | |
| Distribution | Apparently limited just to the northern Coastal Plain -- specimens from Gates and Chowan counties. This is a taxon of hybrid origin, though Weakley (2020) states that "It regularly occurs in the absence of one or both parents and also sometimes outside the current distribution of one of its parents, suggesting that it is able to reproduce via viable spores. It is therefore treated here without the hybrid × indicating sterility and non-independence."
Ranges from MD to northern GA and AR. | |
| Abundance | Very rare, known from apparently just two counites. However, as it has traditionally been named as Dryopteris x australis, perhaps few botanists bother to even look for the taxon. The State Rank of S1 from the NC NHP seems still appropriate; the website editors suggest at least a Watch List status. | |
| Habitat | Swamps and bottomlands, seemingly in blackwater conditions. | |
| Phenology | Fruiting period not mentioned in Weakley (2020). | |
| Identification | This fern has evergreen fronds, fertile only toward the tip. It is quite similar to the more southern D. ludoviciana; see Weakley (2020) for more details. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | See above.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Southern Wood-fern. However, D. ludoviciana is traditionally named as Southern Wood-fern, and thus this name is not also used as the preferred Common Name on this website. | |
| State Rank | S1 | |
| Global Rank | GNR | |
| State Status | [W7] | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
