Dryoptera

There are three species of fern in the reserve belonging to the genus Dryopteris: a buckler fern and two species of male ferns, all very much alike. At the moment all three are busy unfurling long, bright green, finely divided leaves.

Each frond is a single leaf that grows from a rhizome, an underground stem. Fern fronds are different from the leaves of flowering plants; they unroll from the tip rather than unfolding from a bud the way most flowering plants do. Take a look at the emerging leaves on a birch tree: they are all folded up inside the bud scales like origami, ready to expand outwards. Meanwhile the ferns’ new fronds are pushing up through soil and leaf litter, protected by their tightly coiled structure.