Needle shield fern

Family Shield ferns. Very common in moist coniferous and mixed coniferous-broadleaf forests of the European part, the Caucasus and Western Siberia, and in the eastern part of North America.

A plant with a thick oblique scaly rhizome and a tuft of light-green fronds. Height 30–60 cm. Petioles are about one-third the length of the blade and, like the rachis, are covered with pale brown scales lacking a dark median stripe. The blade is triangular-ovate or oblong-lanceolate in outline, partly tripinnate. The first lower lobe of a lateral segment is no more than 1.5 times longer than the upper one; its first lobes are opposite. First-order pinnae (except the very lowest pair) are lanceolate, with oblong pinnately-divided pinnules whose segments bear teeth extended into small needle-like points. Sori and indusia are kidney-shaped, smaller than in the fragrant shield fern. Sporulates in the second half of summer.