Cinnamon Fern is an ancient, widespread and handsome fern native to North and South America as well as to Asia. It is found in swamps and moist woodlands as well as in upland gardens, in acidic soils from wet to moist/well drained. The fiddleheads of the fertile fronds, covered with cinnamon-colored pubescence, unfurl and rise first in the spring, forming a vase-shaped display of the sterile, pinnately compound fronds. These are often 2-3 feet high, but in wet habitats they can reach 5 feet. This fern can take more sun if moisture is consistently available. The fertile fronds arising in the center remain erect after the dying back of the sterile fronds in fall. In nature, large colonies, formed by means of stout rhizomes, produce masses of wiry root material which are harvested and used as a substrate for epiphytic plants such as orchids. Osmunda fiber, used in the potting of orchids, comes from the roots of these ferns. Some sources say the common name refers to the cinnamon-colored pubescence of the fiddleheads in spring; others say it refers to the tuft of cinnamon pubescence at the base of the sterile fronds; still others attribute the name to the color of the fronds in fall, or to the color of the fertile fronds! Like for all common names, it’s our choice.
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Osmundastrum cinnamomeum
Key Info
Common Names: Cinnamon Fern
Family Names: Osmundaceae
Plant Type: Fern
Leaf Retention: Deciduous
Special Characteristics: Tolerates shade, Reported to be deer resistant., Medicinal value, Good fall color, Interesting form, Tolerates wet conditions, Rhizomatous, Ornamental foliage
Additional Info
Habit: Fiddleheads, cinnamon-brown and covered with a dense wooly pubescence, emerge from the tips of thick, creeping, semiwoody rhizomes. They unfurl and develop into large, erect, pinnately-compound sterile fronds 2-4' long, recognizable by the presence of a conspicuous tuft of orange hairs on the underside of each pinna at its base. Upright fertile fronds without pinnae emerge in early spring from the center of the plant, quickly turning brown. The fibrous roots of Cinnamon Fern are wiry and tough and form mats with occasional rhizomes.
Height: 2'-3'
Spread: 2'-3'
Soil Conditions: Moist, rich, humusy, acidic to circumneutral soils; sandy, loamy, clay slightly acid, peaty loam.
Leaves: Upright, vase-like clusters of pinnately compound, lance-shaped sterile fronds, with each of the pinnae divided again into lobes; with a tuft of cinnamon colored pubescence at the base of each frond, green turning orange-gold in fall, 3-5 feet tall when abundant moisture is present, shorter in more average sites.
Flowers (or reproductive structures: Cinnamon fern (and other species of Osmunda, the Royal Fern, O. regalis and the Interrupted Fern, O. claytonia) have separate and distinctive fertile fronds in addition to the typical sterile fronds. The fertile fronds of Cinnamon Fern, which are unusually showy, are taller than the sterile fronds: stiff, erect, spore-bearing structures lacking pinnae which emerge from the center of the plant and turn reddish brown early in the season. There are no sori; spores occur in hardened, capsule-like structures called sporangia. The fertile fronds, covered with copious masses of wooly hairs and brownish sporangia, shed their spores to the wind in late summer.
Natural Distribution: Cinnamon Fern forms large clonal colonies in swampy areas, shores of rivers or lakes, wetland margins This fern is found in high quality natural areas (Illinoiswildflowers.info): low sandy woodlands, wet sand prairies, sandy swamps, peaty bogs, seeps and springs in wooded areas.
USDA Hardiness Zone: 3 to 9
USDA Wetland Indicator Status in NC: FACW
Wildlife Connections: Wooly fibers on fiidleheads are used as nesting material for birds. Various moth larvae and sporangia-feeding bugs and thrips feed on Cinnamon Fern. This species is not a significant source of food to vertebrate animals, although when large colonies of this fern occur, its large leaves can provide protective cover (Illinoiswildflower.info)
Propagation: By division or by spores.