chain fern

chain fern

n.

Any of various terrestrial ferns of the genus Woodwardia, native chiefly to the Northern Hemisphere, having pinnately compound or divided leaves that when fertile bear chainlike rows of spore cases.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

chain fern - a fern of the genus Woodwardia having the sori in chainlike rows fern - any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores genus Woodwardia, Woodwardia - in some classification systems placed in family Polypodiaceae: chain ferns Virginia chain fern, Woodwardia virginica - North American fern