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Fern Identification
Can anyone identify this fern?
I discovered it struggling to thrive in a drain pipe out the front. When we moved here in August last year it was squished under movers rubble and bags of trash from the house being renovated. I kept meaning to get to it but it was a bit tricky as it was awkward to get to. Now it's accessible and it made it through winter I went out and managed to pull it out plus one of its baby plants. Unfortunately it wasn't easy and I couldn't save it's leaves so I've taken a photo of them so I know what kind it is in future. Now repotted into the flower bed in the shade out the back! Will it survive and reward us with lovely new green foliage and life ? We shall see !
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It might be bracken.
Dryopteris Filix mas looks a lot like that, forming clusters of leaves from a central rhizome. It may be easier to identify when the leaves have grown a bit to show its overall shape.
By the leaf and the habit, I'd say that was dryopteris filix-mas, yes. Your description of where it was also backs that up. Bracken would be very unusual in that sort of position, self-seeded like that and it emerges from the ground differently, not from a tight cluster of shoots like you have there.
H-C