Fern identification!

[AAdamsPDX]

I'm working on updates to my photography website and I want to identify plant and tree species wherever possible. This one has me stumped, though. To me the photo makes it look like something between a sword fern or a deer fern. Definitely not a lady fern, bracken fern, or maidenhair. Maybe a young sword fern?! Any thoughts?!

[retired jerry]

deer ferns have lower leaves that are bigger, and upright thiner leaves. That looks sort of like the upper leaves. Were there lower leaves on the same plant?

sword ferns kind of unroll when they first shoot out. they don't have narrow leaves that get bigger. That doesn't look like sword ferns

[adamschneider]

Yeah, they look to me like the upper ("fertile") fronds of a deer fern.

[AAdamsPDX]

Thank you both! I was leaning towards deer fern but it just didn't seem quite right. I went back and looked at the raw file of this image and boosted the exposure settings quite a bit, which makes it much more obvious that this picture DOES show the upper part of both fronds.

[AAdamsPDX]

Sorry, can't resist: hope this isn't spamming, but I'm excited about the new website (Squarespace rocks):
http://www.hriggsphotography.com/forests/

Thanks for your help identifying the deer fern in the above-linked gallery!

[mdvaden]

The lighting looks attractive in most of the photos.

The western redcedar one didn't get me doing handstands, but I like the moss in it.

Like the bonsai-like huckleberry photo too.