Plant Species: Cystopteris fragilis, brittle bladder-fern
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Pteridophyta-- ferns
Class: Filicopsida
Order: Polypodiales
Family: Dryopteridaceae -- wood ferns (formerly included in Polypodiaceae)
Genus: Cystopteris
Species: fragilis
Variety:
Common Name: brittle bladder-fern, bladder fern, northern fragile fern
Species Code: CYFR2
Origin: Native to moist to moderately dry, shady woods and shrub thickets, often in rocky places, up to subalpine areas of much of North America except the southeastern US.
Rare: no
Form: fern; delicate, small to medium; fronds in small clusters attached to a scaly rhizome.
Duration: perennial
Longevity:
Habitat Type: mostly a forest species, occasionally in shrub thickets
Wetland Indicator Status: FACU
Leaves: deciduous, glabrous, bi or tripinnate blade at least twice as long as wide, 3-25 cm by 1-10 cm, consisting of 8-18 pairs of offset leaflets, blade gradually tapers to tip.
Mature height:
Flowers: not applicable to ferns
Flower color:
Bloom: not applicable to ferns
Bloom starts on:
Bloom ends on:
Fruit: reproduces by spores. Sori small and numerous in a cuplike indusium borne on a veinlet. Sporulates in summer.
Vegetation type:
Characteristics:
C. filix-fragilis in St. John 1963. Filix fragilis in Piper & Beattie 1914.
The original family Polypodiaceae has been divided into a number of families and Cystopteris placed in family Dryopteridaceae.
Reproduces sexually by spores and vegetatively by rhizomes.
Spores are haploid. They germinate to form a gametophyte generation called a prothallus. The prothallus contains the sexual organs and sexual reproduction occurs there. Successful fertilization requires water between the prothallus and the soil. The fertilized egg develops into a new plant, the sporophyte (diploid) generation.
2n=168 (Baldwin et al 2004).
2n=168, 252 (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993+).
Spores are windborne.
C. fragilis is a polymorphic complex which includes different ploidy levels and the ability to hybridize with other species of the genus where the ranges overlap (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993+).
Comments:
Sun requirement: full sun to full shade
Soil moisture: mesic
Precipitation:
Fire:
Hazards:
Sowing time:
Transplant time:
Planting duration:
Seed comments: Reproduces sexually by spores, not seeds.
Key words: fern upland forest
Alternate Genus: Filix
Alternate Species: filix-fragilis
Alternate Variety:
Propagation:
Grows readily from spores (Parish et al 1996).
Reproduces sexually by spores and vegetatively by rhizomes.
Notes:
References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 8/10/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html
Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/
Parish, Roberta, Ray Coupe, and Dennis Lloyd. 1996. Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing. Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing Company. 296 pp.
St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.