The Ladies have parted ways

In the recent past, the name lady fern referred to a wide ranging single species, which covered much of Europe, Northern Asia, and North America. Recent taxonomic studies, however, determined that Athyrium filix-femina was actually four distinct species, that were all masquerading as one. As taxonomists teased these apart, the original name, Athyrium filix-femina remained with the European material. The plants in the northern parts of North America (Canada to NC mountains) became Athyrium angustum. Plants in the Pacific Northwest and Sub-arctic became Athyrium cyclosorum, and the plants native to Southern North America (Mass to Florida) became Athyrium asplenioides.

Since Athyrium filix-femina in the trade is almost entirely European genetics, we made our own local selection, from a particularly nice form, growing near the nursery, that we’ve named Athyrium asplenioides ‘Juniper Level’. We’re growing this as a spore strain, which we’ll introduce in January. Below is a patch of several clumps growing in our garden in July. Although our original divisions came from a clump growing in deep shade, and moist soils, we planted ours where it gets six hours of full sun daily. As you can see, even in our intense heat, it has thrived here with average soil moisture. This opens up entirely new garden opportunities for using southern lady fern.

Just like the price of fuel, plant taxonomy is a fluid situation, with changes coming like a proverbial ping pong ball. The genus Athyrium is in the process of further study, for what is almost certainly further dissection into an array of new fern genera….stay tuned.