18. Dryopteris fragrans (L.) Schott (Gen. Fil., plate.9. 1834.)—Fragrant cliff fern, fragrant wood-fern.—Fig. 19.

Rhizome erect, short and thick. Stipe 2—11 cm long, to 1/3 the blade length, tufted, glandular and scaly, the scales broad lanceolate, ca. 3.5 mm long, 1.2 mm wide, thin, irregularly toothed, pale reddish brown, more or less shiny; blade mostly deeply pinnate-pinnatifid, on larger fronds to 2 pinnate-pinnatifid, elliptic or narrowly lanceolate, acutely tapered at both ends, to ca. 6—25 cm long. 2—5 cm wide, covered with yellowish round glands, particularly on underside; pinnae often overlapping and inrolled, dense scaly; indusia large, whitish, often overlapping, becoming brown with ragged margins.

Dryopteris fragrans is a diploid, sexual fern of circumboreal distribution growing in crevices and on rocks which are often calcareous. In the eastern part of its range (eastern Siberia), the larger, more lax plants with distant pinnae are sometimes recognized as var. remotiuscula Kom.; however, most botanists do not recognize this variety because the variation is reportedly clinal and possibly due to a longer growing season.

Dryopteris fragrans is a small fern suitable for alpine rock gardens. It is hardy to a January average of —20°F.