What is "woodwardia"

Woodwardia \Wood*war"di*a\, n. [NL. After Thomas J. Woodward, an English botanist.] (Bot.) A genus of ferns, one species of which ( Woodwardia radicans) is a showy plant in California, the Azores, etc.

n. (context botany English) Any of the genus (taxlink Woodwardia genus noshow=1) of chain ferns.

Woodwardia (chain fern) is a genus of 14 to 20 species of ferns in the family Blechnaceae, in the eupolypods II clade of the order Polypodiales, in the class Polypodiopsida. It is native to warm temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. They are large ferns, with fronds growing to 50–300 cm long depending on the species.

The genus was named after Thomas Jenkinson Woodward.