Golden cinnamon ferns

Lush beds of cinnamon fern, Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, brighten seasonally damp swales in a beautiful prairie savanna complex yesterday. This scene was photographed in The Nature Conservancy's Kitty Todd Preserve. Fall colors - other than these ferns - are just starting, with sassafras, blackgum, maples and a few other tree species beginning to brighten. Within two weeks, the eastern deciduous forest should be a bright tapestry of colors here in the Ohio Country.