English name: Hard-fern
Gaelic name: Raineach Chruaidh

Atlas of Ferns:
Pre 1950 record: NG41.
Post 1950 records: Recorded in all other hectads.

British Pteridophyte Records:
BPS Bulletin Volume 2, Number 2, (1980): NG41, 54 J. Campbell.
The Fern Gazette Volume 12, Part 5, (1983): NG37, 41, 54 C. W. Murray, NG71 M. McCallum Webster.

Botanist in Skye: Recorded in all hectads.

New Atlas:
1987-1999: Recorded in all hectads. 

Altitude distribution on Skye
Minimum: 5m.
Maximum: 880m.

Blechnum spicant occurs in birch/aspen woods along with Pteridium aquilinum, Dryopteris dilatata and D. filix-mas, and in oak/birch woods Athyrium filix-femina, D. aemula, D. affinis, Hymenophyllum wilsonii, Oreopteris limbosperma and Polypodium vulgare may also be present. It also occurs with O. limbosperma and P. aquilinum in the dampest areas in Festuca ovina grassland. On peaty soils on banks, especially alongside burns and ditches it occurs with O. limbosperma with occasional D. dilatata and A. filix-femina and on drier ground P. aquilinum (this is the U19 community).

In Rodwell (ed.) (1991a, 1992) it occurs in the W11b, W17a, U4, U16 and U19 communities. In Birks (1973) it occurs in the Rhacomitreto-Empetretum, Nardus stricta-Vaccinium myrtillus, Agrosto-Festucetum, Callunetum vulgaris, Calluna vulgaris-Sieglingia decumbens, Calluna vulgaris-Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Vaccineto-Callunetum hepaticosum, Luzula sylvatica-Vaccinium myrtillus, Luzula sylvatica-Silene dioica, Betula pubescens-Cirsium heterophyllum, Sedum rosea-Alchemilla glabra, Betula pubescens-Vaccinium myrtillus, Corylus avellana-Oxalis acetosella, Oxalis acetosella-Rhytidadelphus loreus and Fraxinus excelsior-Brachypodium sylvaticum Associations.

In Averis & Averis (1998b) it records that the oceanic liverwort Colura calyptrifolia was found growing as an epiphyll on the living leaves of Blechnum spicant.