Polystichum plicatumHicken ex Hosseus

WFO wfo-0001234453 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.

Polystichum plicatum, photographed by Leonel Roget
fig. a Leonel Roget, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-12-31 / obs. 180467688
Polystichum plicatum, photographed by Nicolas Olejnik
fig. b Nicolas Olejnik, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150077954
Polystichum plicatum, photographed by Lauu
fig. c Lauu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 180461221
Polystichum plicatum, photographed by Nicolas Olejnik
fig. d Nicolas Olejnik, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150078004
Polystichum plicatum, photographed by Nicolas Olejnik
fig. e Nicolas Olejnik, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 127785561
Polystichum plicatum, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. f Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58099629
Polystichum plicatum, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. g Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58000474
Polystichum plicatum, photographed by aacocucci
fig. h aacocucci, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 100181971

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 9 botanical countries

Regions where Polystichum plicatum is native: Amsterdam-St.Paul Is., Marion-Prince Edward Is., Tristan da Cunha, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Argentina South, Chile Central, Chile South, Ecuador Argentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestArgentina SouthChile CentralChile SouthEcuador Amsterdam-St.Paul Is.Marion-Prince Edward Is.Tristan da Cunha
Native distribution of Polystichum plicatum, 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 Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Argentina South AGS
Chile Central CLC
Chile South CLS
Ecuador ECU
Amsterdam-St.Paul Is. ASP ANTARCTICA
Marion-Prince Edward Is. MPE
Tristan da Cunha TDC

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 11 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 elegans Mett.
  • Aspidium elegans Sturm
  • Aspidium fuscatum Willd.
  • Aspidium plicatum Poepp.
  • Aspidium plicatum var. laxum Kunze
  • Aspidium plicatum var. rigidum Kunze
  • Polystichum elegans Remy
  • Polystichum mohrioides f. latifolia Hicken
  • Polystichum mohrioides f. latifolium Hicken
  • Polystichum mohrioides var. elegans (J.Rémy) C.Chr.
  • Polystichum mohrioides var. plicatum (Poepp. ex Kunze) C.Chr.

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.