Ostrich Fern

Thanks Little Tank!! I'll take a picture soon!!

Looks like the fertile frond of an ostrich fern. If you know where you found it, go back in another couple weeks (who knows, this year - now?) and look for fiddle heads! They should be hairless and have a deep groove on the inside edge of the stalk, a U-shape in cross-section.

frond:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ostr...

ostrich fern fiddlehead:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ostr...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pteridium_a...


What about this?

It's hard to distinguish even with live ferns. I'm not that great with ferns, this does look familiar as we are in the same area but I'm not sure which fern it is.

Do you know any certain species, or is it hard to distinguish dead ferns?

Looks like a dead fern.