New York Fern

More info for the terms: fern, prescribed fire

The Research Project Summary Early postfire effects of a prescribed fire in the southern Appalachians of North Carolina provides information on prescribed fire and postfire response of plant community species, including New York fern, that was not available when this species review was originally written.

New York fern

More info for the term: fern

New York fern is a deciduous fern with leaves about 18 inches (46 cm) long and 6 inches (15 cm) wide.  It grows in tufts along horizontal rhizomes which are somewhat scaly and widely creeping [2,25].  Spore clusters are submarginal, and spore covers are absent or minute and quickly shrivel [24,25].  The fronds of Thelypteris noveboracensis forma fragrans are glandular and aromatic [8,24].

More info for the term: fern

New York fern is distributed from Newfoundland west to Ontario and south to Arkansas and Georgia [8].  It occurs throughout the New England and Atlantic coastal states and has been noted in some parts of Florida [14,24,25].  It is also found in Hawaii and some midwestern states [21].

More info for the terms: fern, fire regime

New York fern has widely creeping rhizomes that allow it to regenerate following fire [11]. FIRE REGIMES: Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under "Find FIRE REGIMES".

More info for the terms: fern, hardwood

In Allegheny hardwood types, fire does not control undesirable species like New York fern [12].

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More info for the terms: chamaephyte, geophyte, hemicryptophyte

   Chamaephyte    Geophyte    Hemicryptophyte

More info for the terms: fern, swamp

New York fern grows in moist woodlands and pastures, ravines, bogs, swamps, and field margins of Eastern deciduous forests [24,25,28].  It is rarely found in dry woodlands of Illinois [21].  In the Adirondack Mountains it grows on well-drained to "imperfectly-drained" sites from 100 feet (30 m) in elevation near Lake Champlain to 2,300 feet (701 m) in the MacIntyre Range [14].  It occurs up to 5,000 feet (1,524 m) elevation in the Blue Ridge Province [25].  It is found on marine sandy and glacial meltwater sites on well-drained slopes in disturbed forests southwest of Montreal, Quebec [20].  It grows on calcareous sites in the southern Blue Ridge escarpment.  Soils ther are Brevard phyllite, with a pH of 6.2 to 6.5 [6].  It can also grow on sites with a pH as low as 3.8 [9]. Some overstory species with which New York fern is associated are swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor), mazzard cherry (Prunus avium), mockernut hickory (Carya tomentosa), pignut hickory (C. glabra), shagbark hickory (C. ovata), white ash (Fraxinus americana), American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), and spicebush (Lindera benzoin) [19,29].  Some understory associates include hayscented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula), short huskgrass (Bracheylytrum erectum), violet (Viola spp.), woodsorrel (Oxalis spp.), aster (Aster spp.), clubmoss (Lycopodium spp.), viburnum (Viburnum spp.), evergreen woodfern (Dryopteris intermedia), common greenbrier (Smilax rotundifolia), circaea (Circaea quadrisulcata), ladyfern (Athyrium filex-femina), Indian jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), and wild lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum canadense) [1,9,17,18].

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This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

    14  Northern pin oak
    15  Red pine
    20  White pine - northern red oak - red maple
    21  Eastern white pine
    22  White pine - hemlock
    23  Eastern hemlock
    25  Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch
    27  Sugar maple
    28  Black cherry - maple
    39  Black ash - American elm - red maple
    44  Chestnut oak
    46  Eastern redcedar
    52  White oak - black oak - northern red oak
    53  White oak
    55  Northern red oak
    57  Yellow-poplar
    58  Yellow-poplar - eastern hemlock
    59  Yellow-poplar - white oak - northern red oak
    64  Sassafras - persimmon
   108  Red maple
   110  Black oak

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES16  Oak - gum - cypress
   FRES17  Elm - ash - cottonwood
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch
   FRES14  Oak - pine

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This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the term: forest

   K098  Northern floodplain forest
   K099  Maple - basswood forest
   K100  Oak - hickory forest
   K101  Elm - ash forest
   K103  Mixed mesophytic forest
   K104  Appalachian oak forest
   K106  Northern hardwoods
   K110  Northeastern oak - pine forest
   K111  Oak - hickory - pine forest
   K112  Southern mixed forest

More info for the terms: association, fern

New York fern is an understory component of the yellow birch (Betula
alleghaniensis)-sugar maple (Acer saccharum) association in Quebec [15]..

More info for the terms: fern, fern ally

Fern or Fern Ally

More info for the terms: cover, fern, hardwood, tree

In hardwood forests of the Northeast, New York fern can sometimes be an
undesirable species because of its ability to outcompete seedlings of
commercially important tree species [3,10,11,12].  It can form a dense
ground cover, especially following clearcutting, preventing
establishment of hardwood seedlings.  Treatment with glyphosate or
sulfometuron before clearcutting is recommended to reduce New York fern
cover [10,12].

White-tailed deer browsing of Allegheny hardwood seedlings, particularly
black cherry (Prunus serotina), can cause increases of New York fern
[11,26].  New York fern produces phenols which can kill black cherry
seedlings [5].

Acid rain studies on Long Island, New York, showed that New York fern
became a dominant understory species where pH levels declined to between
3.8 to 4.1 [9].

     AL  AR  CT  FL  GA  HI  IL  IN  KY  ME
     MD  MA  MI  MS  NH  NJ  NY  NC  OH  PA
     RI  SC  TN  VT  VA  WV  NB  NF  NS  ON
     PQ

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More info for the terms: fern, ferns

New York fern produces spores from May through August from Virginia south to Georgia [28], from late July through late September in New England [24], and from June through September in Illinois [21].  Leaves turn brown in autumn, usually before other wood ferns [25].

More info for the term: fern

In general, rhizomatous species respond to fire by sprouting.  No specific effects of fire on New York fern were found in the literature.

More info for the terms: ground residual colonizer, herb, rhizome

   Rhizomatous herb, rhizome in soil    Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)

More info for the terms: cover, fern, frond, rootstock

Sexual reproduction will occur on bare mineral soil, but New York fern reproduces mainly by a creeping rootstock that allows it to form dense ground cover [11].  The rhizomes grow faster in partially cut than in uncut stands.  New rhizomes form on the frond petiole [11].  The rhizomes can be pulled out of the ground like a mat of sod and transplanted [25].

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More info for the terms: fern, hardwood

Facultative Seral Species New York fern is shade tolerant, but will grow in canopy openings in hardwood forests [2,11,29]. 

Dryopteris noveboracensis (L.) Gray
Polypodium noveboracensis L.
Aspidium noveboracensis Schrad.
Aspidium conterminum strigosum Eaton
Dryopteris contermina stigosa Underw.

More info for the term: fern

The currently accepted scientific name of New York fern is Thelypteris
noveboracensis (L.) Nieuwl. in the Polypodiaceae family [14]. There are
two forms: T. n. noveboracensis forma noveboracensis and T. n. forma
fragrans (Peck) Burnham [8,24]. The most commonly used synonym in the
literature is Dryopteris novebaracensis.