Phegopteris hexagonoptera

This fern has a storied history of name changes and synonyms, my favorite being Phegopteris hexagonoptera!!! What a delightful mouthful of syllables! Start spitting out a plant name like this and your friends will think that you have a Ph.D. in Horticulture. Other remarkable scientific names include, but are not limited to, Dryopteris hexagonoptera and Thelypteris hexagonoptera. The common name that I use is “Broad Beech Fern”, but it’s also known as “Southern Beech Fern” and just plain “Beech Fern” among others. The first word in the name, the genus, comes from the Greek word Phegos, meaning Beech, and Pteris meaning fern, possibly because it was found to be growing among Beech trees, DUH! The second word, the specific epithet, means six-angled wings, I still haven’t sorted that out yet.

Even though this is a fern that you'll find in nature to be growing in light to deep shade, this particular specimen is getting quite a bit of afternoon sun and growing in not so rich soil, another testament to how easily adaptable it is to cultivate, as in nature it favors humusy, acidic, medium to wet, well-drained soils.

Under optimum growing conditions, it spreads somewhat quickly by underground rhizomes, but don’t let that scare you from growing it. I grow it in a variety of situations and it has never been overly aggressive. Also. it’s easy to pull up a rhizome if it starts growing in a direction that you don’t want it to fill. What a great gift for a fellow fern lover. And who doesn’t love ferns?

In all the years that I’ve been growing Phegopteris hexagonoptera, I’ve never seen any insects visit it and it appears to have no disease problems. Best of all, as with all ferns, the varmint’s pay it no mind. The plants in my garden average about 18” – 24” in height. Did I hear someone say PERFECT???