Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic

Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern) fiddleheads in March.
Photo © Elaine L. Mills

Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern) fronds unfurling in March.
Photo © Elaine L. Mills

Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern) at the U.S. National Arboretum in May. Foreground plant is Impatiens capensis.
Photo © Elaine L. Mills

Sterile frond of Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern) in October.
Photo © Elaine L. Mills

Pinnate-pinnatifid frond dissection of Matteuccia struthiopteris (ostrich fern).
Photo © Mary Free

Fertile fronds of Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern) in September.
Photo © Elaine L. Mills

Native mostly in the northern half of the Mid-Atlantic Region, Ostrich Fern is indigenous in only three places in Virginia, including along the Potomac River in Arlington and Fairfax counties. It requires a large landscape to show off to full advantage its long, finely dissected fronds, suggestive of ostrich plumes. Learn more . . .