Fernacular

Ever since we put all 5 younguns through grade school, I have dearly missed going with them to their 6th grade outdoor school. It was always at the very end of the school year and was a complete blast. Hubby and I often got asked to do a class in Plant Identification. Of course, I knew nothing about the topic but just happen to be married to Mr. Horticulture himself and I am a quick learner.

So now whenever we find ourselves in the woods, I automatically go into outdoor school mode and start looking for the 5 ferns we always tried to find.

The first one is everywhere, plain old sword fern. If you can't find this stuff than you should not be in 6th grade at all.

The second is nearly as common, bracken fern. Plentiful and much prettier in my opinion.

This is not a fern at all, but you should definitely have a good ID on it BECAUSE it is evil. That's Poison oak and 1 drop of it's potent oil will infect 100 of you readers of mine. That could seriously cut down my readership.

This one is a little harder to find and very graceful and pretty, hence the name, Maiden Hair. It's also of the palmatum species as you can see by how the fronds go out like fingers in your palm. (I told you we loved teaching this stuff)

I almost gave up looking for this one which is my favorite. You can tell it's different because of how the little leaflets are totally connected to each other at the base. It's called deer fern. It's the purest green color ever.

I couldn't find licorice fern - it only grows in trees and even though I kept a sharp eye out for it we never spotted one.

Just when I thought class was over I spotted this. I have no idea what fern this is and my husband just shrugged. I'm not even sure it is a fern because of the tiny yellow blossom but I will be looking this up shortly.

So, there you go, now you are definitely smarter than a 6th grader. Review these carefully - there might be a quiz before tonight's bonfire.