Male-fern
Male-fern - Dryopteris filix-mas
Has a short, stout, erect rhizome shaggy with old frond bases and pale brown scales. It normally bears a single crown of soft dark green fronds, 15 to 150 cm long. This fern is 1- to 2-pinnate. The pinnules have rounded tips and are serrated all round. The sori underneath the pinnules are round and normally run in two parallel rows.
Sca\y Male-fern (D. affinis)
Pale brown or greyish scales on stem (rhachis); no dark blotch at base of pinna underside.
Woods, hedgebanks, ditch sides, etc.
July August
Perennial
Common throughout Britain.
Common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 343 of the 617 tetrads.
David Nicholls
Grace Dieu
03 March 2008
David Nicholls
Martinshaw Wood
31 August 2013
Graham Calow
Stoney Stanton
31 August 2016
Graham Calow
Stoney Stanton
31 August 2016
David Nicholls
Martinshaw Wood
31 August 2013
Graham Calow
Frolesworth
01 June 2015
specimen examined
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Additional images
 top of Granitethorrpe Quarry Sapcote SP 4956 9366 (taken 15.5.2008).JPG)
. top of Granitethorrpe Quarry Sapcote SP 4956 9366 (taken 15.5.2008),.JPG)
All NatureSpot records
Chirosia betuleti
The larvae of the fly Chirosia betuleti cause galls to form on ferns, and in particular on Male-fern, Lady-fern and Buckler-ferns. Eggs are laid in the tip of the fronds, and the resulting larvae tunnel into the main stalk causing it to twist and the pinnae to become bunched and distorted like a mop head. Some of the pinnae may turn brown and die.