Piedmont Natives: Southern Lady Fern

Southern lady fern (Athyrium asplenioides)

The hot, humid days of late summer are slightly more bearable in a leafy Piedmont forest—slightly.

If you’re on the East Coast and traversing the banks of a shaded stream or some other low-lying spot, you’re likely to come across a Southern lady, of the fern variety, that is.

The hardy Southern lady fern is a ubiquitous summer sight in the forests of Georgia and the Carolinas. I found the fern shown here in a patch of woods in Atlanta.

The ferns are deciduous, dropping their leaves in the winter months, so they won’t be lush and green for too much longer.

Sori on the underside of a Southern lady fern (Athyrium asplenioides)