Dryopteris goldieana(Hook. ex Goldie) A.Gray

Goldie's woodfern

WFO wfo-1000067277 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Dryopteris goldieana, photographed by Clay Gibbons
fig. a Clay Gibbons, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-26 / obs. 200853128
Dryopteris goldieana, photographed by Zakqary Roy
fig. b Zakqary Roy, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198168880
Dryopteris goldieana, photographed by Pierre Cartier
fig. c Pierre Cartier, CC0 1.0 / obs. 162799628
Dryopteris goldieana, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. d Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 160939211
Dryopteris goldieana, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. e Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 160938440
Dryopteris goldieana, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. f Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 156563596
Dryopteris goldieana, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. g Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 156149195
Dryopteris goldieana, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. h Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 153021263

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 32 botanical countries

Regions where Dryopteris goldieana is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Rhode I., South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasConnecticutGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKentuckyMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMissouriNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSouth CarolinaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Dryopteris goldieana, 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
Arkansas ARK
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
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 1,619 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -15.0 °C -10.2 °C -2.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.9 °C 25.6 °C 29.4 °C
Annual rainfall 889 mm 1,143 mm 1,532 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 99 mm 229 mm 316 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 1,619 research-grade observations of Dryopteris goldieana 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 10 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 americanum Torrey
  • Aspidium filix-mas var. goldieanum (Hook. ex Goldie) Christ
  • Aspidium goldieanum Hook. ex Goldie
  • Dryopteris goldieana var. prolifera Gilbert
  • Filix goldieana (Hook. ex Goldie) Farw.
  • Filix-mas goldiana (Hook. ex Goldie) Farw.
  • Lastrea goldieana (Hook. ex Goldie) C.Presl
  • Nephrodium goldieanum Hook.
  • Polystichum goldieanum (Hook. ex Goldie) Keyserl.
  • Thelypteris goldiana Nieuwl.

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 DRGO3. 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.