• Fernando, Danilo D.
  SUNY
  

Dryopteris fragrans has a global interrupted circumpolar distribution in the Northern Hemisphere, and the temperate forests of the Northeastern United States represent the southern periphery of its natural geographic range. Genetic and phenotypic diversity of D. fragrans in the Northern Forests were investigated using DNA markers and morphometric analysis, respectively. Genetic diversity is low within and high among populations in the Northern Forests, whereas phenotypic diversity is high within and low among most of the populations. Although genetic and morphological traits are uncorrelated, both show considerable differentiation between the populations from the Northern Forests and in comparison to a representative population from Northern Canada.