Pic(k) of the Week: Winter fiddleheads

  Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

Fiddleheads of Christmas ferns unfurl in late winter.

Glenn Creek Nature Preserve
City of Decatur, Georgia, USA.
12 March 2026.

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Christmas Fern

Polystichum acrostichoides, commonly denominated Christmas fern, is a perennial, evergreen fern native to eastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to Minnesota and south to Florida and eastern Texas. It is one of the most common ferns in eastern North America, being found in moist and shady habitats in woodlands, stream banks and rocky slopes. Christmas fern has a tufted, clumping habit, with its fronds arising from a central growth point. It can form colonies, but frequently grows singly or in twos or threes. The common name derives from the evergreen fronds, which are often still green in winter, at Christmas.

— Wikipedia

🔥 Observe; don't forage! Unlike Ostrich ferns, whose cooked fiddleheads are edible, the fiddleheads of Christmas ferns are NOT EDIBLE and can be toxic if ingested.
— Old Farmer's Almanac.

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Wayne Shorter: Footprints

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• Album: Adam's Apple
• Label: Bluenote (recorded: 1966 | released: 1967)
• Musicians:
  • Wayne Shorter – leader; composer; tenor saxophone
  • Herbie Hancock – piano
  • Reggie Workman – bass
  • Joe Chambers – drums
  
  
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays.
• Photo 20 of 52, for year 2026. See a larger, hi-res version on Flickr: here.


• Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.
• Lens: Olympus M.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R.
• Settings: 42 mm | 1/125 sec | ƒ/5.6 | ISO 400.
• Edit: Photoshop Elements 15, Nik Collection (2016).


• Image licensed via Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Reproduction permitted, but with these provisos:
  • only in unadapted form
  • only for noncommercial purposes
  • attribution required (e.g., Cizauskas on Flickr)
  • commercial use forbidden except with explicit permission.
  
  
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