FLORA OF ICELAND elements: Struthiopteris spicant, Hard fern, Skollakambur

Struthiopteris spicant (previously known as Blechnum spicant); The Hard fern is relatively rare species on Iceland. It grows in lowland regions in the northern parts of Iceland. It is missing in the south, presumably because it needs to be covered by snow beds in the winter. A special variant grows in western Iceland at a hot spring, this is the variety "fallax" which is characterized by equal shape of sterile and fertile leaves. Recently this variety has been upgraded into a new species: Struthiopteris fallax. In the normal variety the fertile leaves (sporangia-bearing leaves) are very different in shape than the sterile leaves. The fertile leaves have leaflets that are narrower than the sterile leaves. The sporangia are placed in two parallel lines on the bottom-side of the leaflets.
It is a member of the Blechnaceae, the Hardfern family. The Icelandic name of the species is Skollakambur, that of Str. fallax is Tunguskollakambur.