Osmunda regalis in the early Holocene of Western Norway

A fossil sporangium and spores of Osmunda regalis were found in sediments bio‐stratigraphically dated to about 9500 years old on the island of Utsira, SW Norway. The ages of the Utsira remains and finds of spores from Jæren indicate that Osmunda immigrated into Norway, perhaps from Britain, during the first 1000 years of the Holocene. The ages of its recorded arrival at other sites show that Osmunda spread rapidly within the limits of its present distribution in Norway by about 8300 BP.