Licorice fern

Description:

Fronds evergreen and usually less than 50 cm long; leaflets pointed with finely toothed or scalloped margins; veins do not reach the margins; sporangia (spore cases) in oval to round sori (clusters) on underside of leaflets, one row of sori on each side of main vein; no indusium (membrane that covers or surrounds a sorus in some ferns).

Habitat:

On granite boulder near small stream. This species is a common epiphyte on the trunks and branches of hardwood trees such as bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum).

Notes:

Rhizome tastes of licorice.