Asplenium onopterisL.

WFO wfo-0001107220 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Asplenium onopteris, photographed by Alessia Guggisberg
fig. a Alessia Guggisberg, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-03 / obs. 203010545
Asplenium onopteris, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. b Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 192351149
Asplenium onopteris, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. c Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 187016363
Asplenium onopteris, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. d Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 182872744
Asplenium onopteris, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. e Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 180081863
Asplenium onopteris, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. f Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174164341
Asplenium onopteris, photographed by Quentin Groom
fig. g Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / obs. 168834806
Asplenium onopteris, photographed by Thierry Helminger
fig. h Thierry Helminger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159827034

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 28 botanical countries

Regions where Asplenium onopteris is native: Algeria, Azores, Canary Is., Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, Iran, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Türkiye, Albania, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaLibyaMoroccoTunisiaCyprusIranLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineTürkiyeAlbaniaBulgariaCorseFranceGreeceIrelandItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe AzoresCanary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Asplenium onopteris, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Canary Is. CNY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iran IRN
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Türkiye TUR

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,959 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -0.5 °C 4.2 °C 13.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.1 °C 26.5 °C 29.8 °C
Annual rainfall 474 mm 838 mm 1,841 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 11 mm 99 mm 193 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,959 research-grade observations of Asplenium onopteris that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 12 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Asplenium acutum Bory ex Willd.
  • Asplenium adiantum-nigrum subsp. acutum (Bory ex Willd.) Moore & More
  • Asplenium adiantum-nigrum subsp. onopteris (L.) Hegi
  • Asplenium adiantum-nigrum subsp. onopteris (L.) Heufl.
  • Asplenium adiantum-nigrum var. acutum (Bory ex Willd.) Newman
  • Asplenium adiantum-nigrum var. onopteris (L.) Druce
  • Asplenium adiantum-nigrum var. plumosum E.J.Lowe
  • Asplenium adiantumnigrum f. onopteris (L.) Heufl.
  • Asplenium onopteris var. triangularis Kunkel
  • Asplenium virgilii Bory
  • Chamaefilix adiantum-nigrum var. acuta (Bory ex Willd.) Farw.
  • Tarachia acuta (Bory ex Willd.) C.Presl

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.