By EMILY D. COOK / Community Columnist

Have you ever noticed that the floor of Oak Mountain’s forests are covered with green plants all year long? Many of those plants are what we call a Christmas Fern.

Christmas Fern, Polystichum acrostichoides, is an evergreen fern native to Alabama and much of the eastern United States.

Christmas Ferns can survive in part or full shade, on a variety of soils from dry, rocky, shallow soils to moist wooded slopes, moist banks and ravines.

The fronds of the Christmas Fern are 11 to 32 inches long and 2 to 5 inches wide.

Each frond is divided into 20–35 pairs of pinnae (divisions of a pinnate leaf – which is a leaf with leaflets, not a single leaf).

Depending on how you look at the pinnae of Christmas ferns, you can either see a sled or a stocking in the shape.

Christmas ferns can reach 2 feet in height and 2 feet in width. The fronds of Christmas Ferns are dark green and decrease in size from bottom to top.

The smaller leaflets at the top of the frond are the fertile leaflets, producing brown sori (spore bearing structures).

In order for spores to be produced, moisture and temperature conditions must be favorable; therefore, typically spore production occurs between June and October.

The fiddleheads, or new fronds, are silvery and appear in spring, around April.

The Christmas Fern is popular in natural landscaping and cultivated gardens as an ornamental plant.

Christmas Fern frond stay upright until the first hard frost, then will recline against the ground to trap any underlying leaves to aid in soil conservation. Historically, the Christmas Fern fronds were also used in Christmas decorations.

Come observe these beautiful plants year round at Oak Mountain State Park.

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