Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta (Filicophyta)
Class: Pteridopsida (Filicopsida)
Subclass: Schizaeatae
Order: Schizaeales
Family: Lygodiaceae
Genus: Lygodium
This fern is sometimes called the Hartford fern because of its initial discovery near Hartford, Connecticut. It is an unusual fern. Like all Lygodiums, the rhachis of the frond continuously unrolls from its distal end, creating a long, sinuous, twining rhachis that uses other plants and inanimate objects for support. The fronds in this way may become twenty or so feet long, and may form small thickets. Some tropical species of Lygodium are much coarser and much longer, forming tough climbing vines.
The genus Lygodium has long been included in the family Schizaeaceae, which is really rather absurd. It is true that Lygodium, Schizaea, Mohria and Anemia are unusual genera of ferns that apparently diverged from other ferns long ago and seem related to one another as evidenced by some peculiar anatomical features, but they are vastly different in morphology otherwise and do not all belong in the same family. Today, they may be included in different families in the order Schizaeales and sometimes are even segregated into their own subclass.
The climbing fern is indigenous to the eastern United States, and is one of our rarer ferns. It needs a moist, intensely acid soil as well as at least moderate light levels. It is typically found in sandy soils and often in close association with sandstone outcrops. Probably the best area of development for it ecologically is the Pottsville Escarpment from Tennessee through Kentucky to Ohio. The Pottsville Escarpment represents the transition from the higher and younger Cumberland Plateau to the east and the older and lower Bluegrass to the west. But nowhere is it common.
There are not separate fertile fronds, but the fertile pinnae are always towards the end of the frond, and the pinnae are strongly dimorphic, with the fertile ones being thicker and constricted.
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This page was last revised on 11-10-1997.