Characteristics

USDA Hardiness zone ^Help 3-7
Life cycle Perennial
Light requirement Partial sun/shade
Water requirement Moist
Soil type Light (sandy), Medium, Heavy (clay)
Leaves Deciduous
Height 1.0
Layer Shrubs
Utility Shade tolerant, Ground cover
Edible True
Edible parts Leaves, Root
Propagation method Division, Spores
Growth Medium
Family Polypodiaceae
Plants For A Future https://pfaf.org/User/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Matteuccia struthiopteris
Spread 91-120cm
Native to Northern hemisphere
Habitat Swamps, Bottomland woods
Soil pH 6.8-7.2
Alternate name Fiddlehead fern, Shuttlecock fern
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matteuccia

Ostrich Fern

Matteuccia struthiopteris

🔗 By The Cosmonaut - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5 ca

🔗 Ryan Hodnett, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

USDA Hardiness zone

3-7

Life cycle

Perennial

Light requirement

Partial sun/shade

Water requirement

Moist

Layer

Shrubs

Description

The fronds are dimorphic, with the deciduous green sterile fronds being almost vertical, 100–170 cm (39–67 in) tall and 20–35 cm (7.9–13.8 in) broad, long-tapering to the base but short-tapering to the tip, so that they resemble ostrich plumes, hence the name. The fertile fronds are shorter, 40–65 cm (16–26 in) long, brown when ripe, with highly modified and constricted leaf tissue curled over the sporangia; they develop in autumn, persist erect over the winter and release the spores in early spring. Along with Dryopteris goldieana, it is one of the largest species of fern in eastern North America.