Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)

University of Maryland Extension Recommended Native Plant

Sensitive fern is a coarse-textured, medium to large-sized deciduous perennial fern. The name comes from its sensitivity to frost, the fronds die quickly when first touched by frost. This bright green deciduous fern makes an excellent moist groundcover. It is a medium sized fern growing 12-18" tall in part sun to shade in moist to wet soil. It spreads by rhizome and spores. Good for wet meadows, wooded gardens, and water edges. The fiddleheads have a pale reddish color. 

Sensitive fern is native to Northern Hemisphere temperate regions. In North America, it ranges from Newfoundland south to Florida and west to Texas, the Rocky Mountains, the Dakotas, Quebec, and Manitoba. Wild turkeys use the fertile spore stalks as a secondary food source in winter. Insects feed on its leaves, as do the larvae of multiple moth species. It is a larval host plant of the herpetogramma moth.

BONAP Native Range Map (bright green indicates county native, dark green indicates state native)