Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Osmunda claytoniana

interrupted fern, osmonde de Clayton
Leaves

pinnate-pinnatifid;

petioles ca. 1/3 length of blades, winged, with light brown hairs, becoming glabrate.
Fertile leaves

with greatly reduced, sporangia-bearing medial pinnae that wither early, giving appearance of no middle pinnae (hence the vernacular name, interrupted fern).
Sterile leaves

elliptic to oblong, ca. 0.5–1 m;

pinnae broadly oblong, lacking persistent tuft of hairs at base; ultimate segments with base truncate, margins entire, apex rounded.
Sporangia

greenish, turning dark brown.
2n

=44.

Osmunda claytoniana
Phenology Sporulation early spring–midsummer.
Habitat 0–2300 m
Distribution
from FNA
CT; IA; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; SPM; Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Osmunda claytoniana is sparingly cultivated as an ornamental.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Osmundaceae > Osmunda
Sibling taxa
O. cinnamomea, O. regalis, O. ruggii
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1066. (1753)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers