Polystichum sinense(Christ) Christ

WFO wfo-0001123494 Accepted WFO 2026-06 6 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–f · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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 sinense, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. a Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-08-16 / obs. 95375866
Polystichum sinense, photographed by 葉子
fig. b 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 74287199
Polystichum sinense, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. c Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 95375892
Polystichum sinense, photographed by 葉子
fig. d 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 74287202
Polystichum sinense, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. e Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 95375918
Polystichum sinense, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. f Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 95375938

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 16 botanical countries

Regions where Polystichum sinense is native: Cape Provinces, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern Provinces, China North-Central, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, East Himalaya, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya Cape ProvincesFree StateKwaZulu-NatalLesothoNorthern ProvincesChina North-CentralChina South-CentralInner MongoliaQinghaiTaiwanTibetXinjiangEast HimalayaNepalPakistanWest Himalaya
Native distribution of Polystichum sinense, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
Inner Mongolia CHI
Qinghai CHQ
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Xinjiang CHX
Cape Provinces CPP AFRICA
Free State OFS
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Northern Provinces TVL
East Himalaya EHM ASIA-TROPICAL
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
West Himalaya WHM

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 20 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 prescottianum var. sinense Christ
  • Polystichum alatawshanicum Chang Y.Yang
  • Polystichum alticola Schelpe & N.C.Anthony
  • Polystichum atuntzeense Ching
  • Polystichum austrotibeticum Ching & S.K.Wu
  • Polystichum decorum Ching & S.K.Wu
  • Polystichum fukuyamae Tagawa
  • Polystichum gongboense Ching & S.K.Wu
  • Polystichum lhasaense Ching
  • Polystichum mediocre Ching & S.K.Wu
  • Polystichum mollissimum Ching
  • Polystichum mollissimum var. laciniatum H.S.Kung & Li Bing Zhang
  • Polystichum mollissimum var. mollissimum
  • Polystichum parasinense Chang Y.Yang
  • Polystichum prescottianum var. sinense Christ
  • Polystichum prescottianum var. wilsonii (Christ) C.Chr.
  • Polystichum rarum Ching & S.K.Wu
  • Polystichum sinense var. lobatum H.S.Kung
  • Polystichum sinense var. sinense
  • Polystichum wilsonii Christ

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.