• Fiddleheads: emerge early spring, slender stem covered in dark brown scales
• Fronds : twice compound, lance-elliptic in outline, broadest at or slightly below the middle, tapering to a point at the tip, 16 to 40 inches long and 4 to 14 inches wide, with 20 to 30 pairs of branches, leaflets have rounded or pointed lobes and tips, rounded or pointed teeth, forked veins that do not extend quite all the way to leaflet edge, opposing lobes at base of a leaflet are often unequal in size
• Spores : Clusters of brown spores develop on back of leaf blade in summer, typically curved to hook-shaped, though sometimes straight
• Fruiting season : Summer
• Height: 16-40 inches
• Habitat : moist woods, swamps, bogs, stream banks