Dryopteris sparsa(D.Don) Kuntze

WFO wfo-0001115069 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Dryopteris sparsa, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. a Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-03-20 / obs. 183890213
Dryopteris sparsa, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. b Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 184155408
Dryopteris sparsa, photographed by 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi)
fig. c 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166097773
Dryopteris sparsa, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. d Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150397937
Dryopteris sparsa, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. e Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 69677723
Dryopteris sparsa, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. f Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183890244
Dryopteris sparsa, photographed by 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi)
fig. g 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166110822
Dryopteris sparsa, photographed by 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi)
fig. h 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159848632

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 29 botanical countries

Regions where Dryopteris sparsa is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Tibet, Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Queensland, Caroline Is. China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanTaiwanTibetAssamBangladeshBorneoEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamWest HimalayaQueensland Nansei-shotoCaroline Is.
Native distribution of Dryopteris sparsa, 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
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Queensland QLD AUSTRALASIA
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC

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.

Also published as 23 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 catophoron Kunze
  • Aspidium densum Wall. ex Mett.
  • Aspidium densum Wall.
  • Aspidium oppositum Wall.
  • Aspidium sparsum (D.Don) Spreng.
  • Aspidium viridescens (Baker) Miq.
  • Aspidium weigleanum Kunze
  • Dryopteris parasparsa Ching & S.K.Wu
  • Dryopteris rheophila Mitsuta ex Darnaedi, M.Kato & K.Iwats.
  • Dryopteris sinosparsa Ching & K.H.Shing
  • Dryopteris sparsa subsp. viridescens (Baker) Fraser-Jenk.
  • Dryopteris sparsa var. ryukyuensis Seriz.
  • Dryopteris sparsa var. sparsa
  • Dryopteris sparsa var. viridescens (Baker) Ching
  • Dryopteris viridescens (Baker) Kuntze
  • Lastrea densa C.Presl
  • Lastrea sparsa (D.Don) Bedd.
  • Lastrea sparsa (D.Don) T.Moore
  • Nephrodium sparsum D.Don
  • Nephrodium sparsum var. latisquamum C.B.Clarke
  • Nephrodium viridescens Baker
  • Polypodium oppositum Wall.
  • Polystichum sparsum (D.Don) Keyserl.

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.