Dryopteris wallichiana(Spreng.) Hyl.

alpine woodfern

WFO wfo-0001114407 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Dryopteris wallichiana, photographed by GERMAN LEONEL SARMIENTO CRUZ
fig. a GERMAN LEONEL SARMIENTO CRUZ, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-27 / obs. 191115975

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
840547
Filed as
Dryopteris wallichiana (Spreng.) Hyl.
Det. by
J. P. Condack 2007-03-01
Collected
A. C. Brade 1941-09-09
Origin
BR
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 47 botanical countries

Regions where Dryopteris wallichiana is native: Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Tristan da Cunha, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Iran, Japan, Taiwan, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Assam, Borneo, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Hawaii, Argentina Northwest, Bolivia, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Galápagos, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Panamá, Peru, Venezuela MadagascarZimbabweChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastIranJapanTaiwanTibetTranscaucasusTürkiyeAssamBorneoEast HimalayaIndiaJawaMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSri LankaSulawesiVietnamWest HimalayaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestHawaiiArgentina NorthwestBoliviaBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastColombiaCosta RicaDominican RepublicEcuadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaPanamáPeruVenezuela Tristan da CunhaGalápagos
Native distribution of Dryopteris wallichiana, 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
Argentina Northwest AGW SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Venezuela VEN
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Borneo BOR
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Iran IRN
Japan JAP
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Madagascar MDG AFRICA
Zimbabwe ZIM
Tristan da Cunha TDC ANTARCTICA
Hawaii HAW 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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 813 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -0.3 °C 8.1 °C 13.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.0 °C 19.4 °C 22.9 °C
Annual rainfall 954 mm 2,420 mm 4,490 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 47 mm 289 mm 607 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 813 research-grade observations of Dryopteris wallichiana 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 76 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 crinitum M.Martens & Galeotti
  • Aspidium donianum Spreng.
  • Aspidium filix-mas f. paleaceum (T.Moore) Asch. & P.Graebn.
  • Aspidium filix-mas f. paleaceum (Lag. ex Sw.) Asch.
  • Aspidium filix-mas var. paleaceum Mett.
  • Aspidium filix-mas var. paleaceum (T.Moore) Mett.
  • Aspidium filix-mas var. parallelogrammum (Kunze) Hillebr.
  • Aspidium paleaceum D.Don
  • Aspidium paleaceum (T.Moore) Dalla Torre & Sarnth.
  • Aspidium paleaceum (T.Moore) D.Don
  • Aspidium paleaceum Sw.
  • Aspidium parallelogrammum Kunze
  • Aspidium patentissimum
  • Aspidium patentissimum Wall. ex Kunze
  • Aspidium wallichianum Spreng.
  • Dichasium parallelogrammum (Kunze) Fée
  • Dichasium patentissimum (Wall. ex Kunze) Fée
  • Dryopteris cyrtolepis Hayata
  • Dryopteris cyrtolepis var. doiana (Tagawa) H.Itô
  • Dryopteris cyrtolepis var. typica H.Itô
  • Dryopteris doiana Tagawa
  • Dryopteris doniana (Spreng.) Ching
  • Dryopteris filix-mas subsp. paleacea (T.Moore) W.Koch ex Braun-Blanq.
  • Dryopteris filix-mas subsp. paleacea (Lag. ex Sw.) W.Koch ex Braun-Blanq.

and 52 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.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. 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.