Cinnamon Fern

Osmunda cinnamomea L.

oz-MUN-da  sin-uh-MO-mee-uh

Ferns

Explanation of name: Named for the Norse god Osmunder, (FNA). Cinnamomea refers to this fern’s fertile fronds which are of a cinnamon color and resemble cinnamon sticks.

Natural range:  Eastern North America, including native to South florida.  Extremely widespread far beyond North America (FNA)

Natural habitat: Swamps, moist to wet woods, seepage slopes, pine flatwoods (TOB), floodplains, marshes, peat bogs (NE4) and similar moist/ wet sites

Recognition: Most ferns bear sporangia on the undersides of their fronds but O. cinnamomea carry theirs on separate and highly distinctive fertile fronds. Cinnamon Fern’s fertile fronds are erect, cinnamon-colored, narrow and cylindric and densely covered in sporangia. If fertile fronds aren’t present, this fern can be identified by its thick creeping rhizome with wiry black fibrous roots (TOB) and pinnately compound fronds with pinnately divided leaflets and diagnostic tufts of orange or rust-colored hair at the base of each pinna. (HUX, TOB)

Landscape uses: In South Florida, Cinnamon Fern’s primary attribute is the showiness of its unique “cinnamon stick” fertile fronds. In colder parts of the state where it is deciduous and dormant in the winter, Cinnamon Fern offers seasonal variation in the garden; new crosiers, or fiddleheads, emerge standing 30-45 cm tall and covered in white to rust colored hairs. NE4 recommends this fern for beautifying pond edges, canal banks, retention ponds and swales, but O. cinnamomea also makes a nice companion for wildflowers, as a specimen in a woodland setting and with other ferns in mixed fern plantings. It performs best in high or dappled shade and in acidic rich soil that is never allowed to dry out (OSO).