Pteris multifidaPoir.

spider brake

WFO wfo-0001109294 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Pteris multifida, photographed by WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁
fig. a WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-02 / obs. 193572888
Pteris multifida, photographed by koala0090
fig. b koala0090, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 182150961
Pteris multifida, photographed by Andrew Conboy
fig. c Andrew Conboy, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181120047
Pteris multifida, photographed by 葉子
fig. d 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 179488779
Pteris multifida, photographed by chiuluan
fig. e chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178017393
Pteris multifida, photographed by Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）
fig. f Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171623995
Pteris multifida, photographed by chiuluan
fig. g chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160260555
Pteris multifida, photographed by chiuluan
fig. h chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157286240

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 8 botanical countries

Regions where Pteris multifida is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Vietnam China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanTaiwanVietnam KoreaNansei-shoto
Native distribution of Pteris multifida, 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
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Vietnam VIE ASIA-TROPICAL

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,797 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -1.1 °C 11.5 °C 14.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.4 °C 30.3 °C 32.8 °C
Annual rainfall 1,209 mm 2,030 mm 4,013 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 84 mm 216 mm 722 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 1,797 research-grade observations of Pteris multifida 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 7 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.

  • Pteris multifida f. serrulata R.H.Miao
  • Pteris serrulata L.f.
  • Pteris serrulata (R.H.Miao) Y.H.Yan
  • Pteris serrulata unranked angusta B.S.Williams ex J.Dix
  • Pteris serrulata var. variegata Regel
  • Pycnodoria multifida (Poir.) Small
  • Pycnodoria multifida (Poir.) Small

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.