The fronds of Phegopteris hexagonoptera are 25-75 cm long
and spread out on elongate rhizomes (therefore not strongly clumped).
Blades are up to 33 cm long and approximately the same width and
are most often 2-pinnatifid, all the pinnae connected along the
rachis by a narrow wing of blade tissue. The lowest pair of pinnae
are often narrowed at the base and they tend to be spreading rather
than conspicuously reflexed as in the similar P. connectilis.
P. hexagonoptera ranges from Quebec to Florida, west to
Texas and Wisconsin. It is uncommon to rare in Wisconsin at scattered
localities, absent from the northwest and the northeast and it
is listed as a "special concern" species. Habitat
is usually in moist woods, often on acidic soils.
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