• Fiddleheads: emerge early spring, hairless, papery tan scales scattered along stem
• Fronds : 30 inches long and 8 inches wide, tapering to a sharp point at the tip, twice compound though lowest pair of branches at base of frond are again compound, leaflets lobed, sometimes divided almost to mid-nerve, toothed, teeth with a bristle-like tip, veins forked
• Spores : groups of spores on underside of leaf, circular and arranged mostly in a row on both sides of mid-vein on a leaflet lobe, not all leaves have spores, lowest branches on a fertile frond typically have no spores
• Fruiting season : Summer
• Height: 6-30 inches
• Habitat : moist to swampy woods, thickets, stream banks