New York fern

A medium-sized deciduous fern. The fronds tend to be up to about a foot long in central Virginia, but may grow to twice that size. Sori appear on the back of the frond. Although there is a single frond in the picture here, New York fern usually grows in a small clump of three or four fronds. The species may be identified by the extreme tapering of the pinnae toward the bottom of the rachis. The way I learned it, "New Yorkers burn the candle at both ends."