Fern Balls

I recently received an email from a park naturalist located in eastern Ohio who asked about ferns showing tightly curled, ball-like tips. A casual observer could possibly mistake the odd structures for emerging frond fiddleheads.

During the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Teacher Field Day held in Hocking Hills on Thursday, we went on a walk-about in Conkle’s Hollow State Nature Preserve. Participants found odd-ball fern-balls created by the fern leaftier moth.