• Fiddleheads: emerge in spring, light green, covered in papery tan scales
• Fronds: 10 to 28 inches long, 2 to 5 inches wide, narrowly lance-like to oblong in outline, tapering at tip, once-compound, leaflets with 6+ pairs of lobes with bristly tipped teeth, lower leaflets triangular in outline and about twice as long as wide
• Spores: group of spores (sori) on underside of fertile leaves, yellowish, turning dark brown at maturity, sori circular and found halfway between mid-vein and leaflet edge, translucent tissue (indusium) partly covers spores and is attached on inner curve
• Fruiting season: Late spring - summer
• Height: 10-28 inches
• Habitat: swamps, marshes, moist to wet woods