Hay-scented fern

Hay-scented fern is a deciduous eastern North American fern with soft, yellow-green, finely cut triangular fronds that spread by creeping rhizomes into dense knee-high colonies. It thrives in woodland edges, clearings and acidic rocky slopes, and is named for the sweet mown-hay smell the fronds give off when crushed or drying.

• Bruised or drying fronds smell distinctly of freshly cut hay, which is where the name comes from.
• Its dense mats can shade out tree seedlings, so foresters sometimes call it a 'fern barrier' that blocks forest regeneration.
• Deer avoid eating it, which lets it spread aggressively in heavily browsed woodlands.

Care
Give it part shade and moist, acidic soil, but plant it where its spreading rhizomes have room or can be contained, since it colonizes quickly.