In message , Colin Jackson
writes
As a newby, what is the difference between brackens & ferns?

Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) is a type of fern, which forms large
colonies, and which is an invasive weed in some areas of Britain. I
expect that it is the commonest and most widely distributed fern in
Britain.

Not all ferns have the typical "fern" leaf (frond). Among British native
species the harts tongue (Asplenium scolopendrium) has ribbon like
leaves and polypody (Polypodium vulgare) lobed leaves.

Of the ferns with the "typical" fronds (i.e. leaves pinnately divided,
and then pinnated lobed or divided at least one more time) perhaps 4
species are widespread and abundant. Of these, bracken is distinguished
by the leaves occurring singly from rhizomes, rather than in spreading
clumps from a common centre, and by the wide gaps between the pinnae
(the first level of subdivisions). It is also more divided that male
fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) and buckler fern (Dryopteris dilatata), and
has differently located sori (spore-bearing structures) to these and to
lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) - in bracken they lie on the edge of
the pinnules (the smallest subdivisions of the frond), while in the
other species they lie within the pinnules.

As a matter of interest, a neighbour said what I had in the garden was
bracken - an invasive weed.
Now the boss is looking , in a nursery, for pots of something very similar,
marked up as ferns!

At a guess, he's looking at species of Dryopteris and Athyrium.

Colin

--
Stewart Robert Hinsley