Onoclea sensibilis (Sensitive Fern)
Onoclea sensibilis (Sensitive Fern)
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Pure Live Seed
Pure Live Seed
Seed is provided in Pure Live Seed (PLS) unless otherwise stated.
Pure Live Seed (PLS) expresses the viable seed content of a seed lot using its purity and germination or viability test results. It helps you compare seed lots and calculate how much bulk seed is needed to meet a specified PLS planting rate.
PLS weight and bag weight
PLS weight is not the same as the total weight of seed in a bag. For example, a lot with 80% purity and 75% viability contains 60% PLS: 80 × 75 ÷ 100 = 60. Supplying 10 lb PLS from that lot requires about 16.67 lb of bulk seed.
Use the current seed test and the stated basis of the mix specification. Germination calculations may include applicable hard or dormant seed. Seed-count estimates also require the number of seeds per pound; PLS alone does not provide a seed count.
What to check when buying a mix
Check whether each rate is stated in PLS pounds, bulk pounds, or a combination. A mix with both bases should not be described as having an all-PLS total.
PLS does not remove weed seeds or guarantee establishment. Review the seed label and analysis for weed content, and match site preparation, planting conditions and follow-up management to your project.
Sources: USDA NRCS, Understanding Pure Live Seed and The Importance of Seed Quality for Natural Resource Conservation.
Weight Conversions lbs. to oz.
Weight Conversions lbs. to oz.
0.01 pounds = 0.16 ounces
- 0.1 pounds = 1.6 ounces
- 0.25 pounds = 4 ounces
- 0.5 pounds = 8 ounces
- 0.75 pounds = 12 ounces
- 1.00 pounds = 16 ounces
Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis) fills moist, shaded ground with broad green fronds. It spreads by rhizomes and is a useful fern to consider where soils remain consistently damp. Its foliage is sensitive to drought and frost, so protect it from drying conditions and expect seasonal browning rather than year-round greenery.
Check the product options above for the available format and quantity.
Plant specifications & ecological relationships
Key growing facts
| Sunlight | Partial sun to light shade |
|---|---|
| Soil moisture | Wet to moist |
| Height | 1½–3 ft |
Native landscape companions
For partial sun / light shade and moist soil, consider these native plants alongside Onoclea sensibilis:
| Companion plant | Height |
|---|---|
| Hairy sweet cicely (Osmorhiza claytonii) | 1 to 3 feet |
| Spreading Oval Sedge (Carex normalis) | 2–3 ft |
| Nodding Fescue (Festuca subverticillata) | Stems 2–3 ft long; may sprawl when flowering |
| White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) | About 1½–3 ft |
These landscape suggestions combine overlapping growing needs with documented plant associations. Match soil, seasonal wetness and mature spread to your site. Remnant records are described separately under Plant communities & associates.
Show / hide ▾Growing & planting details
| Growth habit | Branching rhizomes often form small clonal colonies |
|---|---|
| Root form | Creeping rhizomes; spreads in consistently moist soil. |
| Soil pH | Published cultivation guidance lists acidic soil conditions; no optimal numeric interval is established. |
| Cultivation hardiness zones | Zones 2a–10b (general cultivation guidance) |
| Deer browsing | Limited deer browsing of sterile fronds is reported. |
Plant identification & seed reference
| Botanical name | Onoclea sensibilis |
|---|---|
| Other common names | sensitive fern; Bead Fern; Sensitive Fern |
| Plant family | Onocleaceae |
Show / hide ▾Plant communities & associates
Chicago-region plant communities
Sand Ridge Savanna, Will County (2007–2009 study). Recorded in: wet sand prairie.
Wet sand prairie — selected native associates: Spartina pectinata, Carex scoparia, Asclepias incarnata.
These records come from sampled communities within the preserve.
Illinois woodland and stream communities
Middle Fork Woods, Vermilion County (1999–2002 survey). Recorded in: dry-mesic upland forest — mature second growth; dry-mesic upland forest — immature second growth.
Dry-mesic upland forest — mature second growth — selected native associates: Carex pensylvanica, Carex rosea, Carex blanda.
Dry-mesic upland forest — immature second growth — selected native associates: Carex pensylvanica, Carex rosea, Elymus villosus.
These plants share a recorded habitat; they were not necessarily found in the same small plot.
Green River community records
Wet sand prairie: Lee County, Illinois (2006). Selected catalog plants recorded in this community: Asclepias syriaca; Bolboschoenus fluviatilis; Calamagrostis canadensis; Helianthus grosseserratus; Pycnanthemum virginianum; Rudbeckia subtomentosa.
Sedge meadow East: Lee County, Illinois (2006). Selected catalog plants recorded in this community: Bolboschoenus fluviatilis; Caltha palustris; Verbena hastata.
The study site includes restoration plantings. Community records do not establish county-native origin or a seed-mix recipe.
Other regional plant communities
These plants are named with this species in published vegetation accounts. Each list keeps its community and region; some records describe a shared vegetation type rather than neighboring plants in a measured plot. They are ecological records, not a planting recipe, and may include plants unsuitable for a particular garden.
- Lakeshore forest and shrub community (Lake Duparquet, Quebec): Salix discolor.
Show / hide ▾Native range & C-value
State nativity describes a broad range. Use the Chicago-region assessment for local context; a state listing does not establish county nativity.
| Wetland indicator — NWPL 2022 Midwest | FACW |
|---|---|
| C-value — Chicago region, Flora 2017 | 5 |
| Chicago-region native — Flora 2017 | Yes |
| Native range — U.S. states | Alabama; Arkansas; Colorado; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida; Georgia; Illinois; Indiana; Iowa; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Maine; Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Minnesota; Mississippi; Missouri; Nebraska; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New York; North Carolina; North Dakota; Ohio; Oklahoma; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; South Carolina; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Vermont; Virginia; West Virginia; Wisconsin; Wyoming |
| County nativity | Not yet verified; occurrence records do not establish nativity. |
Show / hide ▾Pollinators & wildlife
Caterpillars & other plant-feeding insects
This plant has published caterpillar host records for the butterflies and moths listed below. These are larval feeding relationships, separate from adult nectar visits. The records span a North American literature compilation and do not establish that every insect occurs locally or uses only this plant.
Moths
- Callopistria floridensis — Florida Fern Caterpillar
- Herpetogramma theseusalis
- Papaipema inquaesita — Sensitive Border Moth, Sensitive Fern Borer
Show / hide ▾Frequently asked questions
What are the ideal growing conditions for Sensitive Fern?
Light: Partial sun to light shade. Soil moisture: Wet to moist.
Is Sensitive Fern deer and herbivore resistant?
Limited deer browsing of sterile fronds is reported. Even plants described as resistant may be browsed. Use physical protection where deer damage is a concern.
Show / hide ▾Sources & ecological notes
Landscape companion selection: Natural Communities compared the growing requirements shown on these species pages with selected source records: Dry-mesic upland forest — mature second growth — East-central Illinois. The shortlist is a planting-design inference. A shared record does not establish adjacency, identical soil requirements, local seed origin, or a tested planting combination. Regional synthesis records retain their documented focal-to-associate scope.
Will County community records: Phillippe, Marcum & Ebinger (2012), Sand Ridge Savanna vegetation, Tables 1–5. Selected species and habitat facts independently organized; no open license is asserted for the article. Sampled communities are kept separate from the preserve’s seeded field.
Illinois woodland records: Larimore, Phillippe & Ebinger (2008), Middle Fork Woods flora, Appendix I. © 2008 University of Illinois Board of Trustees, CC BY 4.0. Habitat records transcribed, selected and linked to catalog names by Natural Communities. Survey: 1999–2002.
Illinois communities & local records: Ebinger et al.: Green River communities (2009).
Native range & ecological ratings: Flora of the Chicago Region (2017), via Universal FQA; Kew WCVP / Plants of the World Online; USACE Chicago FQA (2017); USACE National Wetland Plant List.
Growing conditions & other references: Illinois Wildflowers, John Hilty; USDA Forest Service: Salix discolor; NC State Extension Plant Toolbox.
Wildlife records: Shropshire & Tallamy: caterpillar hosts (2025).
Native range does not identify the origin of the seed or plants offered. Community and wildlife records apply to the locations and conditions described.
Research notes & credits
Caterpillar host records: Shropshire, K.J. & Tallamy, D.W. (2025), Lepidoptera of North America, Supplement 1. Contains information from this database made available under the Open Database License (ODbL 1.0). Natural Communities selected species-level records and screened source qualifications. The complete selection and transformation instructions for this page are available below under the same license.
State nativity: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 4 June 2026 release; taxon Onoclea sensibilis. © The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. CC BY 3.0; selected and reformatted. Only records marked native, not extinct and not doubtful are included. Kew cannot warrant the quality or accuracy of these data; no Kew endorsement is implied.
USACE/ERDC fqadata — Chicago Region FQA 2017. Herman, B., Sliwinski, R. & Whitaker, S. (2017), Chicago Region FQA Calculator; distributed by USACE/ERDC in fqadata under CC0. Values may differ from Flora of the Chicago Region (2017). CC0 dedication. Retained for comparison; the displayed C-value follows Flora database 80.
Community records adapted from Ebinger et al. (2009), Table 3, CC BY 4.0; selected facts reorganized by Natural Communities.
Flora rating attribution: Kenneth Johnson (2018), Flora of the Chicago Region UFQA Database, following Gerould Wilhelm and Laura Rericha (2017), Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis. Individual rating facts are presented with original commentary; the calculator’s software license is not treated as a license for the underlying Flora publication.
Caterpillar research records
Plant: Onoclea sensibilis
Record scope: Host literature synthesis; no county nativity or local insect occurrence inferred.
Shropshire & Tallamy (2025) · Original research dataset · Reuse license: ODbL-1.0
| Plant names in the source | Source insect record IDs |
|---|---|
| Onoclea sensibilis | 202103, 206846, 209273 |
How these records were selected
To reproduce this selection, use the “UDELep May 2025” worksheet in the original research dataset.
- Match the insect record IDs above to column A (UDLepID). Within each table row, pair every listed insect ID with every listed source plant name.
- Use the first two words in column H for the insect’s scientific name, column E for its common name, and column AB for its source category.
- Treat the selected pairs as reported caterpillar host records. Keep all other source fields unchanged and outside this selected table. Include no other rows or host pairs.
- Group butterflies and skippers together, and the other categories as moths. Retain the source’s exotic-category labels and sort display names by scientific insect name.
Growing guidance: Illinois Extension — Keeping deer out of the yard and garden. Selected facts in original wording. General deer advice is not a species resistance rating.
A great woodland garden fern with excellent leaf texture! Can be somewhat aggressive in optimum conditions. Commonly called sensitive fern because the green vegetative fronds are sensitive to and suffer almost immediate damage from the first fall frost.
Plant Shipping & Care
Plant Shipping & Care
We want to ensure that our customers get what they want, a native backyard oasis. To do that, we need to follow a few simple guidelines and give you some information and pointers to make sure you get your plants delivered in a healthy state.
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Order Fulfilment - When Your Plants or Other Items Will Be Ready
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- Seed Typically Ships Out Within One Week Of Order All Year Long
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Where We Ship
What to Expect When Receiving Your Delivery
- Your plants will be packaged with the utmost care
- We will need to cut back certain plants prior to shipping. This seems counter-intuitive, however, the fewer leaves the less water the plants can lose during shipping, resulting in healthier plants for you. This also enables the plants to fit within the protective packaging and shipped safely.
Shipments
- Larger plant shipments will look similar to the picture below with a tray of your plants and a cardboard box to protect them during shipping.
What to Do With Your Plants After Receiving Your Delivery
- Unpack your order IMMEDIATELY
- Inspect for damage and report any issues immediately to Natives@NaturalCommunities.net
- Water your plants
- Install your plants as quickly as possible and water the entire garden area thoroughly
- If you cannot install your plants immediately
- Some plants may not be in a container, put them into some kind of a container such as a paper cup with loose soil until installation
- Make sure each plant is receiving the appropriate amount of light.
- Continue to water daily each morning and possibly again in the afternoon
- No additional fertilizer is needed
Seed Shipping & Care
Seed Shipping & Care
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