Interrupted Fern

Interrupted Fern
Flora, fauna, earth, and sky...
The natural history of the northwoods
Name: ...

Claytons Interrupted Fern [English]: Osmunda claytoniana
Clayweed [English]: Tussilago farfara
ClúimhÃn Cait [English]: Mastocarpus stellatus
Clúimhín Cait [English]: Chondrus crispus
Clúimh [English]: Mastocarpus stellatus ...

Osmunda claytoniana or the interrupted fern is quite interesting. The sterile fronds (meaning the ones that are not spore bearing) grow for a while and then stop, produce spore bearing fertile pinnae and then start growing in the sterile mode again.

Osmunda claytoniana (Interrupted Fern)
Osmunda regalis (Royal Fern, Flowering Fern)
Osmunda spicant synonym of Blechnum spicant (Deer Fern, Deer Tongue Fern)
Osmunda virginiana synonym of Botrychium virginianum (Rattlesnake-Fern) ...

with fiddleheads often collected in spring in the North and boiled like asparagus for eating; more vigorous in the North, not tolerating summer heat of the South; related to the other popular Royal Fern, O. regalis and Interrupted Fern, O. claytonia.

See also: Cinnamon, Royal Fern, Cinnamon fern, Fern, Climbing Fern