Vascular Plants of Vermont
All vascular plants known to occur in Vermont
Maidenhair Fern
Adiantum pedatum (northern maidenhair fern, five-fingered fern) is a species of fern in the family Pteridaceae, native to moist woodland in eastern North America.
five-fingered fern
Adiantum aleuticum (western maidenhair fern, Aleutian maidenhair) is a species of fern in the genus Adiantum, native mainly to western North America from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, south to Chihuahua, and also locally in northeastern North America from Newfoundland south to Maryland.
Lady Fern
Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern or common lady-fern) is a large, feathery species of fern native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, where it is often abundant (one of the more common ferns) in damp, shady woodland environments and is often grown for decoration.
wood ferns
Dryopteris /draɪˈɒptərɨs/, commonly called wood fern, male fern (referring in particular to Dryopteris filix-mas), or buckler fern, is a genus of about 250 species of ferns with distribution in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in eastern Asia. Many of the species have stout, slowly creeping rootstocks that form a ...more ↓
Bracken
Pteridium aquilinum (bracken, brake or common bracken), also known as "eagle fern," is a species of fern occurring in temperate and subtropical regions in both hemispheres. The extreme lightness of its spores has led to its global distribution.
marginal wood fern
Dryopteris marginalis is known as the marginal shield fern or marginal wood fern. The marginal wood fern favors damp shady areas and is found throughout eastern North America. It favors moderately acid to circumneutral soils. It favors cooler areas, but is fairly drought-resistant once established. In the warmer parts of its range, it is most likely to be found on ...more ↓
Rock Polypody
Polypodium virginianum, commonly known as rock polypody, rock cap fern, or common polypody, is a small evergreen species of fern native to the Eastern United States and Canada. It generally grows on rocks and occasionally on tree roots in nature.
Christmas Fern
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern) is an evergreen fern native to eastern North America from Nova Scotia west to Minnesota and south to Florida and eastern Texas. It is one of the most common ferns in eastern North America, being found in a wide variety of habitats and locations.
brittle bladderfern
Cystopteris fragilis is a species of fern known by the common names brittle bladderfern and common fragile fern. It can be found worldwide, generally in shady, moist areas. The leaves are up to 30 or 40 centimeters long and are borne on fleshy petioles. Each leaf is divided into many pairs of leaflets, each of which is subdivided into lobed segments. The underside ...more ↓
brittle bladderfern
Cystopteris tenuis is sometimes known as Mackay's bladder fern or Mackay's fragile fern. It was long considered to be a part of the superspecies for fragile ferns, as Cystopteris fragilis (L.) Bernh. var. mackayi Lawson.
oak fern
Gymnocarpium is a small genus of ferns once placed with various other groups, including the dryopteroid ferns and the athyrioid ferns. Cladistic analysis has demonstrated that Gymnocarpium and Cystopteris form a natural but relatively primitive clade that is basal to the asplenoid, thelypterioid, and athyrioid ferns comprehensively.
Interrupted Fern
Osmunda claytoniana, the Interrupted Fern, is a fern native to Eastern Asia and eastern North America, in the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada.
hay-scented fern
Dennstaedtia punctilobula (Hay-scented Fern) is a species of fern native to eastern North America, from Newfoundland west to Wisconsin and Arkansas, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Alabama; it is most abundant in the east of its range, with only scattered populations in the west.
Salvinia
Salvinia, a genus in the family Salviniaceae, is a floating fern named in honor of Antonio Maria Salvini, a 17th-century Italian scientist. The genus was published by Séguier, in Pl. Veron. 3: 52. 1754. 12 species are currently recognized, at least three of which (S. molesta, S. herzogii, and S. minima) are believed to be hybrids.
maidenhair spleenwort
Asplenium trichomanes (commonly known as maidenhair spleenwort) is a small fern in the spleenwort genus Asplenium. It is a widespread and common species, occurring almost worldwide in a variety of rocky habitats. It is a variable fern with several subspecies.
green spleenwort
Asplenium viride is known as the green spleenwort because of its green stipes and rachides. This feature easily distinguishes this species from the very similar-looking maidenhair spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes.
male fern
Dryopteris filix-mas (male fern) is a common fern of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, native to much of Europe, Asia, and North America. It favours damp shaded areas in the understory of woodlands, but also shady places on hedge-banks, rocks, and screes. It is much less abundant in North America than in Europe. The plant is sometimes referred to in ancient literature as ...more ↓
Royal Fern
Osmunda regalis, the royal fern, is a species of deciduous fern, native to Europe, Africa and Asia, growing in woodland bogs and on the banks of streams. The species is sometimes known as flowering fern due to the appearance of its fertile fronds.
silvery glade fern
Deparia acrostichoides (silvery glade fern or silvery spleenwort) is a common fern in stream bottoms throughout much of the eastern United States. It often forms extensive colonies, growing from creeping crowns. The indusia turn silvery when the sori are close to ripening, hence the name.
walking fern
Asplenium rhizophyllum, the American Walking Fern, is a frequently-occurring fern native to North America. It is a close relative of Asplenium ruprechtii (syn: Camptosorus sibiricus) which is found in East Asia and also goes by the common name of walking fern.
bulblet fern
Cystopteris bulbifera (bulblet bladderfern) is a low-growing rock fern with creeping stems and narrow elongate deltate fronds which grow to 75 cm (30 in), native to eastern North America with two disjunct populations in the west. It is found only on calcareous substrates such as limestone. It commonly festoons limestone cave openings. While most commonly found on vertical ...more ↓
mountain wood fern
Dryopteris campyloptera, also known as the mountain wood fern, is a large American fern of higher elevations and latitudes. It was formerly known as Dryopteris spinulosa var. Americana. This species also has been referred to as D. austriaca and D. dilatata.
Goldie's wood fern
Dryopteris goldiana or Goldie's wood fern is a fern native to the Northeastern United States and adjacent areas of Canada.
intermediate wood fern
Dryopteris intermedia (Muhl. ex Willd.) A. Gray, the intermediate wood fern, is an evergreen eastern North American species also occasionally found in Europe. It is a diploid species, and is the parent of several species of hybrid origin, including Dryopteris carthusiana.
marsh fern
Thelypteris palustris, or the marsh fern, is a fern native to eastern North America and across Eurasia. It prefers to grow in marshy situations in full sun.
northern oak fern
Gymnocarpium dryopteris (Western Oakfern, Common Oak Fern or Northern Oak Fern) is a fern of the family Cystopteridaceae.
ostrich fern
Matteuccia struthiopteris (common names ostrich fern or shuttlecock fern) is a crown-forming, colony-forming fern, occurring in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in eastern and northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America. The species epithet struthiopteris comes from Ancient Greek words, struthio meaning ostrich and ...more ↓
ostrich fern
Matteuccia struthiopteris (common names ostrich fern or shuttlecock fern) is a crown-forming, colony-forming fern, occurring in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in eastern and northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America. The species epithet struthiopteris comes from Ancient Greek words, struthio meaning ostrich and ...more ↓
sensitive fern
Onoclea sensibilis, the sensitive fern, also known as the bead fern, is a coarse-textured, medium to large-sized deciduous perennial fern. The name comes from the observation by early American settlers that it was very sensitive to frost, the fronds dying quickly when first touched by it. It is sometimes treated as the only species in Onoclea, but some ...more ↓
wall-rue
Asplenium ruta-muraria is a species of fern commonly known as wall-rue. In Germany, it is known as Mauerraute or Mauerstreifenfarn. It is a very small epipetric species, growing exclusively on limestone and other calcareous rocks. It is native to both Europe and eastern North America. In Europe, it commonly invades masonry and is a common species, while in ...more ↓
Virginia chainfern
Woodwardia virginica (Virginia chain fern, Woodwardie de virginie) is a leptosporangiate fern with long creeping, scaly, underground stems or rhizomes which give rise to tall (up to about 4 feet, 120 centimetres) widely separated, deciduous, single leaves. In contrast, the leaves of Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, which can be mistaken for W. virginica, ...more ↓
mountain spleenwort
Asplenium montanum, commonly known as the mountain spleenwort, is a small fern of the Appalachian Mountains. First described in 1810, it grows in small crevices in sandstone cliffs with highly acid soil. It can be recognized by its dark blue-green, highly divided leaves. A. montanum is the ancestor, through hybridization, of several other ferns of similar ...more ↓
ebony spleenwort
Asplenium platyneuron (syn. Asplenium ebeneum), commonly known as ebony spleenwort or brownstem spleenwort, is a fern native to North America east of the Rocky Mountains and to South Africa. It takes its common name from its dark, reddish-brown, glossy stipe and rachis (stem and leaf axis), which bear a once-divided, pinnate leaf. The fertile fronds, which ...more ↓
New York fern
Thelypteris noveboracensis, or the New York fern, is a fern found throughout the eastern United States and Canada. It is distinctive by its pinnae tapering to the base of the frond, and by its forming extensive clonal colonies on ridgetops and mountain benches. The only other native species in this area with similarly tapering pinnae is the ostrich fern, Matteuccia ...more ↓
broad beech fern
Phegopteris hexagonoptera, commonly called the broad beech fern, is a common forest fern in the eastern United States and adjacent Ontario. It grows from a creeping rootstock, sending up individual fronds that more or less clump.
long beech fern
Phegopteris connectilis, commonly known as Long Beech Fern, is a species of fern native to forests of the Holarctic Kingdom.
smooth cliffbrake
Pellaea glabella is the smooth cliffbrake. For much of pteridological history, it was regarded as a reduced form or variety of Pellaea atropurpurea. P. glabella is known to exist in two cryptic species, one diploid and one tetraploid. The diploid reproduces sexually, while the tetraploid is normally apogamous. It is now known that the tetraploid form of the ...more ↓
rusty woodsia
Woodsia ilvensis, commonly known as Oblong Woodsia, is a fern found in North America and northern Eurasia. Also known as Rusty Woodsia or Rusty Cliff Fern, it is typically found on sunny, exposed cliffs and rocky slopes and on thin, dry, acidic soils.
Green Mountain maidenhair fern
Adiantum viridimontanum, commonly known as Green Mountain maidenhair fern, is a rare fern found only in outcrops of serpentine rock in New England and Eastern Canada. The leaf blade is cut into finger-like segments, themselves once-divided, which are borne on the outer side of a curved, dark, glossy rachis (the central stalk of the leaf). These finger-like segments are ...more ↓
alpine woodsia
Woodsia alpina, commonly known as Alpine Woodsia, is a fern found in northern latitudes in North America and Eurasia. Also known as Northern Woodsia or Alpine Cliff Fern, it is typically found in crevices, scree slopes and cliffs containing slate and calcareous rocks, especially limestone.
Scott's spleenwort
Asplenium × ebenoides (Scott's spleenwort, dragon tail fern or walking spleenwort) is a hybrid fern native to eastern North America, part of the "Appalachian Asplenium complex" of related hybrids. The sterile offspring of the walking fern (A. rhizophyllum) and the ebony spleenwort (A. platyneuron), A. × ebenoides is intermediate ...more ↓
northern lady fern
Athyrium angustum is known as the northern lady fern, native to northeastern North America. It was long included in the superspecies Athyrium filix-femina, but is now largely recognized as a distinct species.
cinnamon fern
Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, the cinnamon fern, is a species of eusporangiate fern in the family Osmundaceae. It is native to the Americas and eastern Asia, growing in swamps, bogs and moist woodlands.
weft fern
Trichomanes intricatum is known as the weft fern. This is an unusual filmy fern that grows in rock shelters and crevices in the eastern United States, being known only from its gametophyte generation. It is a rare plant that is protected in several states.
