Sensitive Fern

Onoclea sensibilis

This native fern is easily identified by its fronds (leaves), which bear widely spaced leaflets with either wavy or toothed edges. In general the leaves appear coarser than those of other ferns. Furthermore, these leaves are sterile and produce no spores. Instead, a totally different kind of leaf appears toward the end of summer, resembling an elongated bunch of small, brown round berries on a separate stem. Spores are formed and stored over the winter within these berry-like structures, and are liberated in the spring, to begin a new generation of sensitive ferns. The plant is so named not because it reacts to contact with something but because the sterile leaves cannot tolerate frost and succumb to the first cold snap in the fall.