wood fern

noun

1. any of several shield ferns of the genus Dryopteris.

Word History and Origins

Origin of wood fern¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Streams meander past wood ferns and mountain laurel.

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And if you have shade, you could do worse than plant the showy, upright Dixie wood fern, which Dietrich admires, along with the related autumn fern.

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Under an oak grove formerly carpeted with lawn, the gardeners have converted the area to ground-cover plantings of the autumn fern variety Brilliance in a combination with the Dixie wood fern.

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This is a natural hybrid of two wood fern species.

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By now, the nautilus-shell curls of nascent Dixie wood ferns and cinnamon ferns that I saw will surely be unfurled.

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