The cinnamon fern is a native, herbaceous perennial fern in the royal-fern family (Osmundaceae) . It has a wide natural range that includes eastern North America, the American Tropics and eastern Asia. The Asian populations of this species are often recongized as a distinct subspecies (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum subsp. asiaticum). The species epithet is Latin for “cinnamon” and references the reddish-brown color of the sporangia. It is easily grown in medium to wet soils in part shade to full shade. It prefers moist, rich, humus-rich, acidic soils, but adapts to poorer conditions. It naturally occurs in the moist, boggy ground along streams and on shaded ledges and bluffs. It typically grows in clumps 2 to 3 feet tall, but with constant moisture can reach 6 feet in height. It may go dormant with dry soil. It is slow to establish but long-lived. This plant has compact, horizontal rhizomes; its growth is vigorous. The familiar "fiddleheads" also emerge from the base of the plant and unfurl into large, erect, bipinnately compound, yellowish-green, sterile fronds (2 to 4 feet long) which remain attractive throughout the summer and turn yellow in autumn. Separate spore-bearing, stiff, fertile fronds appear in early spring, quickly turning cinnamon-brown. Osmunda fiber used in the potting of orchids comes from the roots of these ferns. Cinnamon fern can be grown in native, rain and shade gardens. It also grows well in woodlands and alongside ponds with some shade. Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems: No serious problems. VIDEO Created by NC State Extension's Homegrown series featuring Mark Weathington , Director of JC Raulston Arboretum .
Curated pairwise relationships between this plant and others in the library — who feeds
whom, who competes, who confuses the pests. Green reads as a good pairing, red as one to avoid.
No curated interactions recorded for this species yet.
Also noted by NC State
Related species the NC State Plant Toolbox flags for this plant — look-alikes to tell
apart, and plants that play a similar role in a planting. Ones we carry in the library are linked.
Dappled Sunlight (Shade through upper canopy all day) | Deep shade (Less than 2 hours to no direct sunlight) | Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day) | Partial Shade (Direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)
Soil pH
Acid (<6.0)
Soil drainage
Good Drainage | Moist | Occasionally Wet
Available space
3 feet-6 feet
NC region
Coastal; Mountains; Piedmont
Mature size
Height: 2 ft. 0 in. - 6 ft. 0 in. | Width: 2 ft. 0 in. - 4 ft. 0 in.
Leaves in circular clusters of arching fronds. Sterile fronds are lanceolate, pinnate-pinnatifid with dense rusty hairs beneath the base of each pinna. The pinna are narrow, lance-shaped, pointed, deeply cut and nearly opposite. Bright green, lacy, broad leaves appear in early spring. Cinnamon-colored spore cases appear on the stalks in the late spring and die by mid-summer.
Fall color
Gold/Yellow
Flower detail
No flowers.
Fruit detail
No fruits. This plants reproduces via spores.
Stem color
Brown/Copper
Wildlife & Ecology
Native status
Native
Origin
Mountain, Piedmont, Coastal Plains
Wildlife value
It provides excellent ground cover. It has scale-like hairs (the fuzz on stems) used by songbirds to line their nests. Birds like the Kentucky Warbler nest in clumps of these ferns.