• Fiddleheads: emerge early spring, slender purple-brown stems covered in brown scales and scattered hairs
• Fronds : At top of stem a single compound leaf, triangular in outline, 6 to 18 inches long and up to 10 inches wide, longer than wide, 12 to 15 pairs of branches oppositely arranged, central stem winged with leaf-like appendages that connect all pinnae together, except for gap above lowest pair, lowest pair usually largest and angled down
• Spores : group of spores found on underside of leaf, circular and arranged around edges of pinnae lobe, at or near tip of vein, may be few yellowish, short-stalked glands along the keel of individual spore case, ripen to dark brown, not all leaves have spores
• Fruiting season : Early to mid-summer
• Height: 6-24 inches
• Habitat : average to moist forests, wooded bluffs, cliffs, rocky banks