SPECIES: Thelypteris noveboracensis
Introductory
SPECIES: Thelypteris noveboracensis
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Snyder, S. A. 1993. Thelypteris noveboracensis. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online].
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station,
Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available:
www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis//plants/fern/thenov/all.html [].
ABBREVIATION :
THENOV
SYNONYMS :
Dryopteris noveboracensis (L.) Gray
Polypodium noveboracensis L.
Aspidium noveboracensis Schrad.
Aspidium conterminum strigosum Eaton
Dryopteris contermina stigosa Underw.
SCS PLANT CODE :
THNO
COMMON NAMES :
New York fern
TAXONOMY :
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.
LIFE FORM :
Fern or Fern Ally
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
No special status
OTHER STATUS :
NO-ENTRY
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Thelypteris noveboracensis
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
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].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES10 White - red - jack pine
FRES15 Oak - hickory
FRES16 Oak - gum - cypress
FRES17 Elm - ash - cottonwood
FRES18 Maple - beech - birch
FRES14 Oak - pine
STATES :
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
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
NO-ENTRY
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
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
SAF COVER TYPES :
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
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES :
New York fern is an understory component of the yellow birch (Betula
alleghaniensis)-sugar maple (Acer saccharum) association in Quebec [15]..
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
SPECIES: Thelypteris noveboracensis
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE :
NO-ENTRY
PALATABILITY :
NO-ENTRY
NUTRITIONAL VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
COVER VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES :
NO-ENTRY
OTHER USES AND VALUES :
NO-ENTRY
OTHER MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
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].
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Thelypteris noveboracensis
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS :
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].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM :
Chamaephyte
Geophyte
Hemicryptophyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES :
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].
SITE CHARACTERISTICS :
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].
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS :
Facultative Seral Species
New York fern is shade tolerant, but will grow in canopy openings in
hardwood forests [2,11,29].
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT :
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].
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Thelypteris noveboracensis
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS :
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".
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY :
Rhizomatous herb, rhizome in soil
Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Thelypteris noveboracensis
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT :
NO-ENTRY
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE :
In general, rhizomatous species respond to fire by sprouting. No
specific effects of fire on New York fern were found in the literature.
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE :
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.
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
In Allegheny hardwood types, fire does not control undesirable species
like New York fern [12].
REFERENCES
SPECIES: Thelypteris noveboracensis
REFERENCES :
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Mifflin Company. 281 p. [21691]
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Allegheny uplands. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 18: 652-656.
[8729]
4. Eyre, F. H., ed. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and
Canada. Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters. 148 p. [905]
5. Fisher, Richard F. 1980. Allelopathy: a potential cause of regeneration
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province of South Carolina. Castanea. 55(4): 282-285. [21692]
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1977. Vegetation and environmental features of forest and range
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