Stats

Lifespan: Perennial
Size: Large
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate rainforest
Range: North America
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Spores
Defense: Spines
Status: Common

About

An evergreen fern that grows in a vase-like rosette of long, sword-shaped fronds in the shaded understory of Pacific coast forests. Indigenous peoples wove the leathery fronds into floor mats and used them as protective layers when pit-roasting camas bulbs.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Polypodiopsida
Order: Polypodiales
Family: Dryopteridaceae
Genus: Polystichum
Species: Polystichum munitum