Osmunda cinnamomea L.

Osmundastrum cinnamomeum (L.) C. Presl

Cinnamon fern

About plant names...

Cinnamon ferns are natives of the Americas, as well as eastern Asia. They date all the way back to the Paleozoic era, somewhere between 500 million and 250 million years ago—they may be the oldest living species. Their longevity is due in part to their prodigious production of spores, estimated at somewhere between 8 and 43 million per plant.^[1] Until 2008, these ferns were known as Osmunda cinnamomea.

Identification: Cinnamon ferns produce sterile fronds 12-59" (30-150 cm) tall and 6-8" (15-20 cm) wide, with opposing leaflets 1¾-4" (5-10 cm) long and ¾-⅞" (2-2.5 cm) wide. The leaflets are so deeply lobed that the fronds appear to be bipinnate. These ferns also produce separate fertile fronds 8-18" (20-45 cm) tall, and it is the light brown color of these fronds that give the fern its common name. As the plant ages, the fronds darken to brown and almost black. These ferns reproduce by spores as mentioned above, and also by cloning themselves, forming huge clonal groups.

Online References:

Osmunda cinnamomea at Illinois Wildflowers

Osmunda cinnamomea on the Connecticut Botanical Society's Connecticut wildflowers site

Osmunda cinnamomea on the USDA Forest Service's Fire Effects Information Database

Osmunda cinnamomea on Wikipedia

Osmunda cinnamomea on nametheplant.net (Native & Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia)

References:

Cobb, Boughton, Farnsworth, Elizabeth & Lowe, Cheryl, Peterson Field Guides: A Field Guide to Ferns and Their Related Families of Northwestern and Central North America, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005, p. 170

8/24/2009 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, MA
≈ 4½ × 7" (11 × 17 cm)

8/24/2009 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, MA
≈ 6 × 9" (14 × 22 cm)

8/24/2009 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, MA
≈ 4½ × 3" (11 × 7.9 cm)

7/15/2020 · Flagg Hill Conservation Area, Stow, MA

8/24/2009 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, MA
≈ 9 × 14" (23 × 35 cm)

5/26/2008 · Wachusett Mountain, Princeton, MA
≈ 22 × 33" (55 × 82 cm)

¹Check here to see how the estimate was derived

Osmunda cinnamomea description by Thomas H. Kent, last updated 25 May 2020.

© FloraFinder.org. All rights reserved.

6/4/2015 · Flagg Hill Conservation Area, Stow, MA
≈ 4 × 6" (10 × 15 cm)

5/18/2012 · Mine Falls Park, Nashua, NH
≈ 16 × 24" (41 × 62 cm)

5/14/2012 · Acton Arboretum, Acton, MA
≈ 11 × 7" (27 × 18 cm)

5/15/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, MA
≈ 4 × 6" (10 × 15 cm) ID is uncertain

5/29/2014 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, MA
≈ 6 × 9" (15 × 23 cm)

5/29/2014 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, MA
≈ 6 × 9" (15 × 23 cm)

5/30/2014 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, MA
≈ 9 × 6" (22 × 15 cm)

8/24/2009 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, MA
≈ 4½ × 3" (11 × 7.9 cm)

5/14/2012 · Acton Arboretum, Acton, MA
≈ 6 × 9" (15 × 23 cm)

8/24/2009 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, MA
≈ 3½ × 2½' (1.2 × 0.8 m)

Range:

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