Local flora.

Ferns and Lycophytes

Key to Families:

  1. Plants floating or submerged aquatics (sometimes appearing terrestrial when present in drying vernal pools), with or without floating leaf blades. … 2.
    • Plants not floating or submerged aquatics (if submerged then only ephemerally so and not restricted to those conditions), leaf blades various. … 4.
  2. Plants floating aquatics, not rooting in soil. … Salviniaceae
    • Plants rooted in soil, not floating. … 3.
  3. Leaves all fertile, linear, in dense rosettes from subterranean corm, each with sporangium imbedded in base. … Isoetaceae
    • Leaves of two forms, one linear with 0-4 fan-shaped pinnae at apex, the other modified into a bean-shaped sporocarp that is submerged and on a short stalk near the rhizome. … Marsileaceae
  4. Stems grooved lengthwise and jointed at nodes; spores in terminal, fleshy cones. … Equisetaceae
    • Stems not grooved lengthwise or jointed at nodes; spores in leaf axils or underside of leaf surface. … 5.
  5. Plants moss-like, leaves simple and needle-like; spores in leaf axils … Selaginellaceae
    • Plants fern-like, leaves compound or pinnately lobed; spores on underside of leaf surface. … 6.
  6. Plants with leaves split into separate vegetative and reproductive sections. … Ophioglossaceae
    • Plants with leaves not separated into distinctive vegetative and reproductive parts. … 7.
  7. Spore clusters (sori) near the leaflet margins, appearing elongate, usually at least partially covered by the in-rolled or curled leaflet margins. … 8.
    • Sori on or along veins between leaflet margin and midrib, mostly round in outline; leaflet margins usually flat, rarely inrolled or curled. … 9.
  8. Generally 5-20 dm tall, sori continuous on leaf edge and covered by inrolled margin. … Dennstaedtiaceae
    • Generally less than 2 dm, if taller then sori covered by individual reflexed lobe tips of the leaf segments. … Pteridaceae
  9. Indusium peltate or kidney-shaped. … Dryopteridaceae
    • Indusium absent, or if present then a hyline flap along vein margin, or segmented in sections, sometimes hair-like, never peltate or kidney-shaped. … 10.
  10. Leaves divided to once-pinnate. … Polypodiaceae
    • Leaves twice-pinnate or more. … 11.
  11. Leaves 2-8 dm; persistent petiole bases course, flattened, at least 3 mm wide. … Athyriaceae
    • Leaves not more than 3.5 dm; petioles less than 2 mm wide. … 12.
  12. Veins on leaf blades extenting to margin (very noticable on adaxial side up leaf); petiole bases not persistent. … Cystopteridaceae
    • Veins on leaf blades not extending to margin (sometimes veins hard to see on adaxial side of leaf); petiole bases persistent. … Woodsiaceae

Quicklinks