Sceptridium multifidum

Leather grape-fern

Family: Ophioglossaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Leather grape-fern is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, the high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, central coast, San Francisco Bay Area, and Warner Mountains in wet meadows, lake and stream edges, and among willows at elevations below 2,900 meters. While not flowering in the traditional sense, this fern produces distinctive spore-bearing structures on long stalks. Growing as a robust, fleshy plant with thick stems, it develops impressive fronds up to 35 centimeters wide with a leathery texture. Its trophophore (vegetative frond) has dense hairy buds and multiple layers of pinnate segments with ovate ultimate segments featuring entire to shallowly crenate margins. The plant's roots are notably thick, approximately 5 millimeters in diameter, and encircled by distinctive coarse, nearly black corky ridges.

Habitat: Common. Wet meadows, edges of lakes and streams, among willows

Elevation: < 2900 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRH, SNH, CCo, SnFrB, Wrn

California counties: Kern, Tulare, Plumas, Siskiyou, Sierra, Fresno, Mariposa, Monterey, Tuolumne, Shasta, El Dorado, Placer, Humboldt, Butte, Nevada, Madera, Trinity, Yuba, Mendocino, Tehama, Calaveras, Santa Cruz

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