Holly-Fern

• This fern has a somewhat prickly appearance to the leaves which gives the plant its English name
• The individual leaves (fronds) of the holly-fern are 10-60 cm long
• Each leaf is made up of many lance-shaped to oblong leaflets up to 3 or 4 centimeters long
• The leaflets have toothed and often spiny edges
• Unlike many ferns, it will stay evergreen all year
• In Northern Ireland this plant can only be found in some cliff crevices in the Lough Navar Forest area of Fermanagh, where it was discovered fairly recently
• It is native to much of the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to Alaska, Greenland and south into mountainous central North America