Harpers Ferry National Historical Park - Ferns

Almost anywhere you visit in the park will have various fern species to observe since they occupy a wide variety of habitats. On the rock ledges and crevices of outcrops, woolly lip fern ( Cheilanthes tomentosa )the locally rare lobed spleenwort ( Asplenium pinnatifidum ), and the common polypody ( Polypodium virginianum ) are likely to be found. But on the steep, rocky, and partially shaded slopes of Short Hill, Maryland Heights, and Loudoun Heights, marginal shield fern ( Dryopteris mariginalis ) and Christmas fern ( Polystichum acrostichoides ) are more common. The floodplains and moist, shaded, low slopes surrounding the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers support even more fern species, including intermediate shield fern ( Dryopteris intermedia ), New York fern ( Thelypteris noveboracensis ), and fragile fern ( Cystopteris protrusa ).