Cystopteris fragilis

Bladder fern

Family: Cystopteridaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Bladder fern is a native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, northern and central Sierra Nevada Foothills, Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountains, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, northern Channel Islands, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, Great Basin, and Desert Mountains in shady, moist rock crevices, meadows, and streamsides at elevations of 50 to 4,100 meters. Its delicate, lance-ovate fronds grow 8 to 30 centimeters long with fine, straw-colored to red-brown stems typically shorter than the blade. Growing from a thin rhizome covered in shining, brown lanceolate scales, this fern forms elegant, feathery clusters with finely divided pinnae. The light green fronds are typically 10 to 24 centimeters long and 3 to 9 centimeters wide, with the lowest two to four pinnae slightly shorter than the upper ones. White indusia protect the delicate sporangia, creating a distinctive feature of this widespread and adaptable fern.

Habitat: Shady, moist rock crevices, meadows, streamsides

Elevation: 50-4100 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaR, n&ampc SNF, SNH, Teh, SnFrB, SCoR, n ChI (Santa Cruz Island), TR, PR, GB, DMtns

California counties: Plumas, Riverside, Shasta, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, San Diego, San Bernardino, Tulare, Placer, Santa Cruz, Tuolumne, Sierra, Tehama, Inyo, Fresno, Los Angeles, El Dorado, Mono, Alpine, Butte, Del Norte, Humboldt, Kern, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Trinity, San Luis Obispo, Amador, Alameda, Marin, Ventura, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Glenn, Sutter, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Colusa, Calaveras, San Benito, Kings

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.