wood fern

/wʊd fərn/

Other forms: wood ferns

Definitions of wood fern

1. noun

   any of various ferns of the genus Dryopteris
   synonyms: wood-fern, woodfern

   types:

   Dryopteris fragrans, fragrant cliff fern, fragrant shield fern, fragrant wood fern

   fern or northern Eurasia and North America having fragrant fronds

   Dryopteris filix-mas, male fern

   fern of North America and Europe whose rhizomes and stalks yield an oleoresin used to expel tapeworms

   Dryopteris marginalis, evergreen wood fern, leatherleaf wood fern, marginal wood fern

   North American fern with evergreen fronds

   Dryopteris oreades, mountain male fern

   a fern of the genus Dryopteris

   type of:

   fern

   any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores