Cystopteris fragilis(L.) Bernh.

brittle bladderfern

WFO wfo-0001107276 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Cystopteris fragilis, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. a Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205538674
Cystopteris fragilis, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. b Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204649806
Cystopteris fragilis, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. c Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205225495
Cystopteris fragilis, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. d Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204438444
Cystopteris fragilis, photographed by Brodie Cass Talbott
fig. e Brodie Cass Talbott, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204097564
Cystopteris fragilis, photographed by CorentinD
fig. f CorentinD, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202517128
Cystopteris fragilis, photographed by Katrin Simon
fig. g Katrin Simon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203857215
Cystopteris fragilis, photographed by Zeke Marshall
fig. h Zeke Marshall, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201505741

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.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Also published as 153 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 dentatum (Sm.) Sw.
  • Aspidium fragile (L.) Sw.
  • Aspidium fragile var. cuneifolium Wallr.
  • Aspidium fragile var. fumarioides M.Martens & Galeotti
  • Aspidium fragile var. obtusifolium Wallr.
  • Aspidium fragile var. tenuifolium Wallr.
  • Aspidium fumarioides C.Presl
  • Aspidium regium (L.) Sw.
  • Aspidium rhaeticum Willd.
  • Aspidium trifidum Sw.
  • Asplenicystopteris blindii (P.Parm.) P.Fourn.
  • Asplenium filix-femina var. retusum (Decne.) C.B.Clarke
  • Athyrium dentatum (Sm.) Gray
  • Athyrium filix-femina var. retusum (Decne.) Bedd.
  • Athyrium fragile (L.) Spreng.
  • Athyrium fragile var. ampliatum Strempel
  • Athyrium fragile var. tenuius Strempel
  • Athyrium pontederae (All.) Desv.
  • Athyrium regium (L.) Spreng.
  • Athyrium retusum (Decne.) Panigrahi
  • Athyrium rhaeticum Sadler
  • Cyathea anthriscifolia Roth
  • Cyathea cynapifolia Roth
  • Cyathea cynapiifolia (Hoffm.) Roth

and 129 more.

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.

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