My two goals for this summer are to get better at ferns (I can identify the obvious ones, but I can barely navigate a dichotomous key for the more difficult ones) and to explore the driftless region of Wisconsin, the area that was never covered with ice during the last ice age. Here are some ferns I found at Donald County Park yesterday. I love ferns that grow on cliff faces, and I adore the delicate fronds of the maidenhair fern.
IDs, to the best of my ability: Cystopteris fragilis*, sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis), rock polypody (Polypodium virginianum), northern maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum)
(May 2025)
*I'd originally incorrectly IDed this and was promptly corrected on iNaturalist by the retired department chair of botany, so I'm fairly confident about all of these species names now.
