Coryphopteris simulata(Davenp.) S.E.Fawc.

bog fern

WFO wfo-1000003628 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Coryphopteris simulata, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. a Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / 2021-08-11 / obs. 150103958
Coryphopteris simulata, photographed by Peter Jacobson
fig. b Peter Jacobson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 85074572
Coryphopteris simulata, photographed by John Baur
fig. c John Baur, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 83008506
Coryphopteris simulata, photographed by Peter Jacobson
fig. d Peter Jacobson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 82547842
Coryphopteris simulata, photographed by John Baur
fig. e John Baur, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 82362631
Coryphopteris simulata, photographed by John Baur
fig. f John Baur, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 80496740
Coryphopteris simulata, photographed by John Baur
fig. g John Baur, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 50614516
Coryphopteris simulata, photographed by Sandra Keller
fig. h Sandra Keller, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 46278735

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
04416119
Filed as
Coryphopteris simulata (Davenp.) S.E.Fawc.
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
not recorded
Origin
not recorded
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 22 botanical countries

Regions where Coryphopteris simulata is native: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Rhode I., Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaConnecticutMaineMarylandMassachusettsNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNova ScotiaOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Coryphopteris simulata, 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
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

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 155 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -12.2 °C -7.6 °C -1.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.3 °C 26.6 °C 29.8 °C
Annual rainfall 1,040 mm 1,256 mm 1,552 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 220 mm 282 mm 340 mm

It is found where winters bring hard 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 155 research-grade observations of Coryphopteris simulata 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 9 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.

  • Aspidium simulatum Davenp.
  • Dryopteris simulata Davenp.
  • Filix simulata (Davenp.) Farw.
  • Filix-mas thelypteris var. simulata (Davenp.) Farw.
  • Lastrea simulata Copel.
  • Nephrodium simulatum Davenp.
  • Parathelypteris simulata (Davenp.) Holttum
  • Thelypteris simulata Nieuwl.
  • Wagneriopteris simulata (Davenp.) Á.Löve & D.Löve

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol THSI2. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.