Oreopteris limbosperma(All.) Holub

lemon-scented fern

WFO wfo-0001116371 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Oreopteris limbosperma, photographed by Dan Wrench
fig. a Dan Wrench, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-02 / obs. 202785671
Oreopteris limbosperma, photographed by Thomas Gyselinck
fig. b Thomas Gyselinck, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 172074793
Oreopteris limbosperma, photographed by Igor Balashov
fig. c Igor Balashov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155552473
Oreopteris limbosperma, photographed by Gabriel Mayrhofer
fig. d Gabriel Mayrhofer, CC0 1.0 / obs. 155560861
Oreopteris limbosperma, photographed by Norrland
fig. e Norrland, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150513645
Oreopteris limbosperma, photographed by Gabriel Mayrhofer
fig. f Gabriel Mayrhofer, CC0 1.0 / obs. 132120332
Oreopteris limbosperma, photographed by Victor Brans
fig. g Victor Brans, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 92940816
Oreopteris limbosperma, photographed by Igor Balashov
fig. h Igor Balashov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 91406511

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 34 botanical countries

Regions where Oreopteris limbosperma is native: Azores, Madeira, Altay, Buryatiya, Iran, Irkutsk, Japan, Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Austria, Belgium, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine AltayBuryatiyaIranIrkutskJapanKazakhstanKrasnoyarskNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaAustriaBelgiumCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkFranceGermanyHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine AzoresMadeiraFøroyar
Native distribution of Oreopteris limbosperma, 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
Austria AUT EUROPE
Belgium BGM
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
Iran IRN
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kazakhstan KAZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Azores AZO AFRICA
Madeira MDR

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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 1,281 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -13.9 °C -5.1 °C 2.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.0 °C 18.8 °C 24.4 °C
Annual rainfall 753 mm 1,425 mm 2,571 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 98 mm 243 mm 454 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 1,281 research-grade observations of Oreopteris limbosperma 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 31 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 montanum (Vogler) Asch.
  • Aspidium odoriferum Gray
  • Aspidium odoriferum var. minus Gray
  • Aspidium oreopteris Sw.
  • Dryopteris limbosperma (All.) Becherer
  • Dryopteris oreopteris (Sw.) Maxon
  • Filix montana (Vogler) Farw.
  • Filix-mas montana (Vogler) Farw.
  • Hemestheum fragrans Gand.
  • Hemestheum montanum Newman
  • Hemestheum oreopteris Parment.
  • Hemestheum oreopteris var. crenatum (Milde) Rouy
  • Hemestheum oreopteris var. deltoideum Rouy
  • Hemestheum oreopteris var. platylobum Rouy
  • Lastrea limbosperma (All.) Holub & Pouzar
  • Lastrea limbosperma (All.) Ching
  • Lastrea montana T.Moore
  • Lastrea oreopteris Bory
  • Nephrodium montanum Baker
  • Nephrodium oreopteris (Ehrh.) Desv.
  • Phegopteris montana Watt
  • Phegopteris oreopteris Fée
  • Polypodium limbospermum Bellardi
  • Polypodium montanum Vogler

and 7 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.