Polystichum setiferum

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Polystichum setiferum, photographed by Stephen James McWilliam — fig. b Stephen James McWilliam, CC0 1.0 / obs. 194831158

Polystichum setiferum, photographed by Марина Садыкова — fig. c Марина Садыкова, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 192944184

Polystichum setiferum, photographed by Jon Mortin — fig. d Jon Mortin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191805570

Polystichum setiferum, photographed by Juraj Ahel — fig. e Juraj Ahel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190901285

Polystichum setiferum, photographed by Bastien Alegot — fig. f Bastien Alegot, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 185097429

Polystichum setiferum, photographed by Mehdi Chetibi — fig. g Mehdi Chetibi, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 184478066

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,043 observations

Condition	5th percentile	Median	95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low	-2.9 °C	2.6 °C	10.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high	17.7 °C	22.3 °C	27.9 °C
Annual rainfall	669 mm	1,026 mm	2,273 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter	66 mm	169 mm	398 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 2,043 research-grade observations of Polystichum setiferum 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 25 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 subsp. angulare (Kit. ex Willd.) Arcang.
Aspidium aculeatum subsp. angulare (Willd.) Hook.f.
Aspidium aculeatum subsp. swartzianum (W.D.J.Koch) Celak.
Aspidium aculeatum var. hastulatum (Ten.) Christ
Aspidium aculeatum var. hastulatum (Ten.) Kunze
Aspidium aculeatum var. microlobum Christ
Aspidium aculeatum var. swartzianum W.D.J.Koch
Aspidium angulare Kit. ex Willd.
Aspidium hastulatum Ten.
Aspidium lobatum var. angulare (Kit. ex Willd.) Mett.
Dryopteris aculeata subsp. angularis (Kit. ex Willd.) Schinz & R.Keller
Dryopteris aculeata subsp. angularis (Kit. ex Willd.) Schinz & Thell.
Dryopteris setifera (Forssk.) Woynar ex Schinz & Thell.
Dryopteris setifera subsp. angularis (Kit. ex Willd.) Maire
Hypopeltis hastulata Tod.
Polypodium angulare Fr.
Polypodium setiferum Forssk.
Polystichum aculeatum subsp. angulare (Kit. ex Willd.) Vollm.
Polystichum aculeatum subsp. setiferum (Forssk.) Nordh.
Polystichum aculeatum var. angulare (Kit. ex Willd.) Rupr.
Polystichum aculeatum var. angulare C.Presl ex Bedd.
Polystichum angulare Hans
Polystichum angulare var. lineare J.Dix
Polystichum setiferum (Forssk.) Rosend.

and 1 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

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. It has no native range either: Kew's checklist does not cover this taxon.