Lady fern
Athyrium filix-femina
Family · Athyriaceae · Harmless
The large soft fern of cold shady northern valleys, forming elegant crowns beside watercourses. Unlike bracken, which covers dry slopes, this lives only where moisture never fails.
Streams and ditches · Uplands · Oak woods
Also known ascommon lady fern
How to tell it
Fronds in a circular crown from a single point, delicate and much divided, luminous pale green. The axis is grooved and pale. On the sori, beneath, the covering is hook or crescent shaped, which separates this genus from the other crown ferns.
What it is confused with
Royal fern
Osmunda regalis
Both in crowns beside water. Royal fern has broad rounded leaflets and raises brown spike-like fronds in the centre; lady fern has finely divided delicate leaflets and makes no spike at all.
Open sheet →What it is for
No relevant use, and better so. It indicates well-preserved riparian woodland, and its presence in a valley says the water runs there all year.