Cinnamon Fern

Cinnamon Fern
Osmunda cinnamomea

I tend to avoid selecting "favorite" things, such as a favorite color, favorite duck, favorite butterfly, etc. because they're all good and I don't want to make any of them feel bad.  However, at the risk of upsetting the other ferns, I'll go ahead and call this my favorite.

It is one of the largest ferns and when you are wading through a forest of them it feels like you are in a bygone era.  There is quite a stand of them in my woods behind my house.  The cinnamon colored fertile leaf makes it easy to identify.

A peculiar thing about Cinnamon Fern and most ferns is that not much eats them.  Their leaves tend to stay whole and nice looking during the summer, much like garlic mustard.  Given that they are native plants that have been around for millions of years, you'd think that there would be a host of critters feeding on them, but there are not.

People often eat the fiddleheads of ferns, so why don't deer?  I've spent some time trying to learn why not, but can't find any particular research paper that answers this question.  If anyone know why, please respond in the comments.  Otherwise, this would be an interesting research topic.

Fiddleheads
These don't look all that yummy to me, so maybe it's other species that people eat.

The fertile leaf, which gives Cinnamon Fern it's name