Deer Ferns

Deer fern is abundant in the coastal rainforest. This delicate little plant has two distinct forms: its sterile fronds are evergreen and lie flat on the ground, and its fertile fronds produce spores, they appear only in the spring and stand straight up from the forest floor. True to its name, deer fern is an important source of winter forage for our coastal blacktailed deer.

Big-tree hunters with the AFA have also noticed that some of the most magnificent groves of giant cedars on the coast are densely populated with lovely beds of deer fern. Cedars are unique among our coastal giants in that they are, like ferns, symbiotically linked to arbuscular mycorrhizae (Douglas-firs and Sitka spruces are connected to another group of fungi called ectomycorrhizae), this means that the mammoth pillars of ancient cedars are intimately connected with the delicate fern gardens that grow in their shadow.