Polystichum luctuosum(Kunze) T.Moore

WFO wfo-0001108311 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 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.

Polystichum luctuosum, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. a Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-03-20 / obs. 129232451
Polystichum luctuosum, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. b Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 129286049
Polystichum luctuosum, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. c Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 129269697
Polystichum luctuosum, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. d Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 128611336
Polystichum luctuosum, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. e Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 128611361
Polystichum luctuosum, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. f Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 129286091
Polystichum luctuosum, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. g Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 129232335
Polystichum luctuosum, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. h Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 129269647

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 23 botanical countries

Regions where Polystichum luctuosum is native: Cape Provinces, Eswatini, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Madagascar, Northern Provinces, Réunion, Zimbabwe, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Taiwan, Tibet, East Himalaya, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Netherlands Cape ProvincesEswatiniFree StateKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMadagascarNorthern ProvincesZimbabweChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanManchuriaTaiwanTibetEast HimalayaNepalPakistanVietnamWest HimalayaNetherlands RéunionKorea
Native distribution of Polystichum luctuosum, 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
Cape Provinces CPP AFRICA
Eswatini SWZ
Free State OFS
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Madagascar MDG
Northern Provinces TVL
Réunion REU
Zimbabwe ZIM
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Manchuria CHM
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
East Himalaya EHM ASIA-TROPICAL
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
Netherlands NET EUROPE

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 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 aculeatum var. pallescens Franch.
  • Aspidium luctuosum Kunze
  • Aspidium tsus-simense Hook.
  • Polystichum falcilobum Ching
  • Polystichum lobatum var. luctuosum (Kunze) Christ
  • Polystichum lobatum var. tsus-simense (Hook.) C.Chr.
  • Polystichum polyblepharon (Roem. ex Kunze) C.Presl
  • Polystichum tsus-simense (Hook.) J.Sm.
  • Polystichum tsus-simense var. pallescens Franch.
  • Polystichum tsussimense var. parvipinnulum W.M.Chu

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.