Native Herbaceous Plants Provide Shelter and Nesting Sites for Wildlife
Lower-growing herbaceous plants, especially ground covers such as ferns and grasses, can provide seasonal cover and nesting materials for wildlife.
Osmundastrum cinnamomeum
Crosier, Crozier
crosier, crozier: the curled top of a young fern frond, also commonly referred to as a fiddlehead
When a fern frond emerges from its underground rhizome, its head is coiled. Its appearance has been likened to a crosier (a bishop's curved staff) or the scroll on the head of some stringed instruments, hence the commonly used term fiddlehead.
Frond
frond: the leaf of a fern
Although people may refer to the leaves of palms and palm-like woody plants (cycads) as fronds, some botanists restrict the term to ferns. Each crosier (fiddlehead) that emerges from a fern's underground rhizome, is a coiled leaf or frond.
Sporangium
sporangium: a sac or receptacle in which reproductive spores are produced and stored
Although sporangia...are often associated with fungi and seedless plants, such as bryophytes (e.g., mosses) and ferns, they occur in all plants sometime during their life cycles.