Matteuccia struthiopteris
< On the list of Rare and Endangered Plants of Armenia
The Ostrich fern
File:Matteuccia struthiopteris.JPG The Ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) is a crown-forming, but also colony-forming, fern of northeastern North America. This fern grows from a completely vertical crown, favoring riverbanks and sandbars, but sends out lateral stolons to form new crowns, thus forming dense colonies resistant to destruction by floodwaters.
The fronds are very dimorphic, with the sterile fronds being almost vertical, and long-tapering to the base but short-tapering to the tip, so that they resemble ostrich plumes, hence the name. The fronds may grow three or more feet tall under ideal conditions. The fertile fronds are brown when ripe, with highly modified and constricted leaf tissue curled over the sporangia.
The ostrich fern is a popular ferns for the garden. The fiddleheads are also popular as a cooked green, considered a delicacy.
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Plant in Armenia
Մատտեուցիա ջայլամափետուր (“Matteutsia jaylamapetur”)
Status
Was registered in Armenia (only in one place) in the beginning of the previous century and never met since then.
Habitat in Armenia
In the north of Armenia, next to Shaghali.
Habitat and ecology
Met in the most humid and shadowy forests, on the river benches, 1300 meters above sea level.
Biology and potential value
Met very rarely. Has a huge scientific value. Poisonous plant.
Measures of protection
An intensive search should be arranged in shadowy and humid forests of Northern Armenia. Fern found should be taken under control and preservation.