flowering fern

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. a genus of showy ferns (Osmunda), with conspicuous bivalvular sporangia. They usually grow in wet places.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any fern of the genus Osmunda: large ferns with creeping rhizomes; naked sporangia are on modified fronds that resemble flower clusters
2. n. Australasian fern with clusters of sporangia on stems of fertile fronds