Bracken vs. Fern — What's the Difference?

Bracken (Pteridium) is a genus of large, coarse ferns in the family Dennstaedtiaceae. Ferns (Pteridophyta) are vascular plants that have alternating generations, large plants that produce spores and small plants that produce sex cells (eggs and sperm).

A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses and other bryophytes by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase.

A fern (Pteridium aquilinum) found worldwide, with large, triangular fronds usually divided into three parts.

Any of numerous flowerless, seedless vascular plants that produce spores giving rise to free-living gametophytes and that often have dissected leaves.

An area with dense thickets of this fern.

Any of a group of some twenty thousand species of vascular plants classified in the division Pteridophyta that lack seeds and reproduce by shedding spores to initiate an alternation of generations.

Any of several coarse ferns, of the genus Pteridium, that form dense thickets; often poisonous to livestock.

Long ago.

(uncountable) An area of countryside heavily populated by this fern.

Ancient; old. [Obs.] "Pilgrimages to . . . ferne halwes." [saints].

A brake or fern.

An order of cryptogamous plants, the Filices, which have their fructification on the back of the fronds or leaves. They are usually found in humid soil, sometimes grow epiphytically on trees, and in tropical climates often attain a gigantic size.

Fern of southeastern Asia; not hardy in cold temperate regions

Any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores

Large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan