nicholeunterwegner's Identifications

Dimorphic perennial fern from short, thick rhizome.

Sterile leaves evergreen, spreading, lanceolate, pinnately cleft (regularly deeply lobed); located on outside of plant. Fertile fronds erect, arising from center of plant, narrowly lanceolate, once-pinnate, withering soon after shedding spores.

One of the deer fern's most distinct characteristics are its two different fronds - sterile and fertile. The sterile fronds are dark green, pinnatifid, lie horizontal to the ground, and spread out in a rosette. The fertile fronds stand vertically out of the center of the sterile frond rosette. The fertile frond leaflets are much thinner and widely spread apart than the sterile fronds'. Near the end of summer the fertile fronds turn brown, as they had in this specimen.

Leaves are alternate, leaflets leathery, shiny, paired, with spiny teeth (like holly) around 9-19 leaflets per leaf. Fruit or flower not visible this time of year. Shrub varies in size, this individual around 50 cm tall.

stiff-branched shrub all over Grass Lake woods

yellow stem and bark

leaves: alternate, clustered, leathery. between 9-13 leaflets per leaf. underside of leaves slightly duller than top of leaves. toothed.

found beneath douglas fir and nearby western hemlock and big leaf maple

Leaves are alternate, leaflets leathery, shiny, paired, with spiny teeth (like holly) around 9-19 leaflets per leaf. Fruit or flower not visible this time of year. Shrub varies in size, this individual around 50 cm tall.

Large, deciduous tree; leaves opposite, waxy, deeply 5-lobed, to 12 inches across. Twigs reddish-brown.

Fruits in winged samaras, covered in stiff, golden hairs; hanging in large axillary racemes.

Family: Sapindaceae
Common Name: Bigleaf Maple

Gaultheria shallon, or Salal, is a durable shrub, native to western North America. It has thick and leathery simple leaves with tiny serrated edges if you look closely. The upper side of the leaves are a dark green and are waxy and glossy from a thick cuticle. Underneath they are a duller, papery pastel green. They are arranged alternately about the branches. It is commonly seen in the under story of larger trees like this Hemlock. Maples surround the Salal shrub also.

Dimorphic perennial fern from short, thick rhizome.

Sterile leaves evergreen, spreading, lanceolate, pinnately cleft (regularly deeply lobed); located on outside of plant. Fertile fronds erect, arising from center of plant, narrowly lanceolate, once-pinnate, withering soon after shedding spores.

One of the deer fern's most distinct characteristics are its two different fronds - sterile and fertile. The sterile fronds are dark green, pinnatifid, lie horizontal to the ground, and spread out in a rosette. The fertile fronds stand vertically out of the center of the sterile frond rosette. The fertile frond leaflets are much thinner and widely spread apart than the sterile fronds'. Near the end of summer the fertile fronds turn brown, as they had in this specimen.

stiff-branched shrub all over Grass Lake woods

yellow stem and bark

leaves: alternate, clustered, leathery. between 9-13 leaflets per leaf. underside of leaves slightly duller than top of leaves. toothed.

found beneath douglas fir and nearby western hemlock and big leaf maple