General Plant Information (Edit)
Plant Habit: Fern
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Partial or Dappled Shade
Partial Shade to Full Shade
Water Preferences: Wet Mesic
Soil pH Preferences: Moderately acid (5.6 – 6.0)
Slightly acid (6.1 – 6.5)
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 4a -34.4 °C (-30 °F) to -31.7 °C (-25 °F)
Maximum recommended zone: Zone 9b
Plant Height: 12 to 18 inches
Plant Spread: 12 to 18 inches
Underground structures: Rhizome
Suitable Locations: Bog gardening
Uses: Groundcover
Will Naturalize
Resistances: Rabbit Resistant
Humidity tolerant
Propagation: Other methods: Division

Image
Common names
  • Netted Chain Fern
  • Netted Chainfern
  • Chain Fern

Photo Gallery
Location: Aberdeen, NC
Date: September 15, 2021
Netted chain fern #11; RAB p.29, 12-1-2; LHB p.85, 6-15-1, "Named
Location: Jenkins Arboretum in Berwyn, Pennsylvania
Date: 2018-11-04
foliage
Location: Elizabethan Gardens, Dare County, North Carolina | June, 2022
Date: 2022-06-12
Location: Jenkins Arboretum in Berwyn, Pennsylvania
Date: 2018-11-04
small colony at pond edge
Location: Jenkins Arboretum in Berwyn, Pennsylvania
Date: 2018-11-04
fertile fronds, more erect with narrow leaflets
Location: Dallas, TX
Date: May
Location: Bristol, Pennsylvania.
Date: July
credit: Choess
Comments:
  • Posted by ILPARW (southeast Pennsylvania - Zone 6b) on Nov 5, 2018 12:30 PM concerning plant:
    This Netted Chain Fern is native from Nova Scotia through Michigan to southern Illinois & Missouri to east Texas to central Florida, growing in woodland swamps, marshes, moist woods, floodplains, water edges, and along brackish water. The sterile fronds are the regular-looking fern foliage about 1.5 to 2 feet long with 8 to 10 pairs of leaflets (pinnae) appearing in spring, and then the fertile fronds appear in summer and are about 1.5 to 2 feet long but have almost linear, very narrow leaflets. There are netted veins on both kinds of fronds and the fertile fronds have sort of rectangular shaped sori (spore producing structures) in chain-like rows. This fern produces slender brown rhizomes so that it is a spreading fern species to form a colony or groundcover. I've never seen this species sold at conventional nurseries.
  • Posted by SongofJoy (Clarksville, TN - Zone 6b) on Jan 15, 2012 3:37 PM concerning plant:
    A deciduous fern widely ranging in the eastern US where it grows in moist woods. The Netted Chain Fern forms spreading colonies from its branching and creeping rhizomes. Glossy green sterile fronds grow about 2' tall and have 8 to 10 broad segments. The texture is soft. Fertile fronds are stiffer, narrower, and more upright. The leaflets, or pinnae, of both fertile and sterile fronds have conspicuously netted veins, resulting in the common name, Chain Fern. This fern is easy to grow in a moist shaded spot and will form a fast ground cover with constant moisture.
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WebTucker On September 15, 2021 Obtained plant
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