Hay-scented Fern gets its common name from when the foliage is crushed, it smells like hay. It usually is 1.5 to 2 feet high, but can get to 3 or 4 feet high. It has lacy, very soft, thin, light green leaves that are erect or arching and the fronds are triangular in shape. The sori (spore-producing structures) under the leaves are along the leaflet (pinnae) margins and are cup-shaped. The species spreads quickly by the underground stems (rhizomes) to form a colony or a groundcover. My biggest customer has a nice patch in her shady front yard east corner that succeeded in producing another colony in the front yard close to the house among her Common Periwinkle groundcover, apparently by spores. She has me pulling out the fronds in that second area so that it is under control. This species is native from north Alabama & Georgia up into southern Newfoundland & southwest Quebec through southern Ontario through Michigan to southern Illinois & Missouri. I have seen often in the forests of eastern Pennsylvania. I see it very occasionally in some professional or plant enthusiast landscapes. It is sold by some larger, diverse conventional nurseries, native plant nurseries, and some mail order nurseries.

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