EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Explanation:   Siberian tigers lurk here, in the dense damp forests of southeastern Siberia of the Russian Far East. 

 For our bed tonight we gather an armful of fronds of the abundant evergreen wood fern that blankets the forest floor.  It will soon blanket us as the sun sets and moon rises through the dark, dense Siberian tree canopy.  

The 150 or so species of wood ferns of genus Dryopteris are abundant in forests throughout the world.  They form rhizomes (underground stems) and are relatively hardy species. 

 This particular species grows here in old forests of the Far East.  It apparently is not well studied but is grown and sold as a cultivare.  

The genus name Dryopteris derives from the Greek drys (oak) and pteris (fern).