Polystichum vestitum(G.Forst.) C.Presl

Prickly Shield Fern

WFO wfo-0001263970 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e

Polystichum vestitum, photographed by Jon Sullivan
fig. a Jon Sullivan, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-01 / obs. 195810492
Polystichum vestitum, photographed by Jaco Grundling
fig. b Jaco Grundling, CC0 1.0 / obs. 191870494
Polystichum vestitum, photographed by John Barkla
fig. c John Barkla, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 192749719
Polystichum vestitum, photographed by John Barkla
fig. d John Barkla, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 180041105
Polystichum vestitum, photographed by naturewatchwidow
fig. e naturewatchwidow, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191473102

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.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Also published as 13 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. vestitum (Sw.) Hook.f.
  • Aspidium asterolepis Trevis.
  • Aspidium perelegans Colenso
  • Aspidium pulcherrimum Colenso
  • Aspidium tasmaniae Mett.
  • Aspidium venustum
  • Aspidium vestitum (G.Forst.) Sw.
  • Aspidium waikarense Colenso
  • Polypodium vestitum G.Forst.
  • Polystichum aculeatum var. vestitum (G.Forst.) Domin
  • Polystichum perelegans (Colenso) C.Chr.
  • Polystichum venustum Hombr. & Jacquinot
  • Polystichum vestitum var. venustum J.Dix

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.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.