Fiddleheads of Spring

Back in April I posted about fiddleheads seen in the Brookside Gardens Conservatory.  Now the ferns are coming up outdoors in our area. When I was at Longwood Gardens last week there were some nicely labeled fiddleheads and I’ve added more examples of Cinnamon ferns from Brookside Gardens (they were a little further along in Maryland than at Longwood in Pennsylvania). The Cinnamon Ferns have two types of fronds: Sterile and spore-bearing. In the picture to the left the taller green fiddleheads are the sterile fronds; the spore bearing fronds are the light brown, short fiddleheads.

As they unfurl they look even more different

The Christmas Ferns were uncurling too but did not seem as interesting this time.

The Ostrich Ferns do look a lot like feathers as they begin to uncurl. I think they are my favorites of this group.