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The fruit is a samara: it has a wing, with the seed at its base.

On the underside of the fronds are sori, structures involved in producing spores. Ferns reproduce without flowers.

Its fruit is a pome: botanists use this category for fruits with a particular structure, beyond their shape or colour.

It can colonise burnt areas and abandoned pastures, forming patches dominated by bracken.

The subspecies purpurea is described on the edges and in clearings of woods and scrub, in cool, shady places.

Evergreen leaves with spiny edges, which can be smooth on older branches or plants.

The fruits take about a year to ripen and may be present at the same time as the next flowering.

The winged stems carry out photosynthesis; the leaves are very small.

Leaves can be deciduous or marcescent: some dry out and remain on the branches during the unfavourable season.

Woodland and scrub along banks, hedges and damp places, including under the canopy of oak woods.