Woodsia oreganaD.C.Eaton

Oregon cliff fernOregon cliff-fernOregon woodsia

WFO wfo-0001109463 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Woodsia oregana, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. a Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205540251
Woodsia oregana, photographed by Daryl Nolan
fig. b Daryl Nolan, CC0 1.0 / obs. 203708721
Woodsia oregana, photographed by Julia Carr
fig. c Julia Carr, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202786067
Woodsia oregana, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. d Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202089181
Woodsia oregana, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. e Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202159641
Woodsia oregana, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. f Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202096414
Woodsia oregana, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. g Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202232990
Woodsia oregana, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. h Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202216151

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 27 botanical countries

Regions where Woodsia oregana is native: Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming AlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoIowaKansasManitobaMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoNew YorkNorth DakotaOklahomaOntarioOregonQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaUtahWashingtonWisconsinWyoming
Native distribution of Woodsia oregana, 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
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Manitoba MAN
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
North Dakota NDA
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO

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 978 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -14.8 °C -8.3 °C -2.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.0 °C 27.1 °C 31.6 °C
Annual rainfall 268 mm 447 mm 1,002 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 27 mm 72 mm 162 mm

It is found where winters bring hard 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 978 research-grade observations of Woodsia oregana 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 12 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.

  • Physematium oreganum Trevis.
  • Physematium oreganum subsp. cathcartianum (B.L.Rob.) Li Bing Zhang, N.T.Lu & X.F.Gao
  • Physematium oreganum subsp. oreganum (D.C.Eaton) Trevis.
  • Woodsia cathcartiana B.L.Rob.
  • Woodsia oregana f. cathcartiana (B.L.Rob.) B.Boivin
  • Woodsia oregana f. glandulosa T.M.C.Taylor
  • Woodsia oregana subsp. cathcartiana (B.L.Rob.) Windham
  • Woodsia pusilla var. cathcartiana (B.L.Rob.) T.M.C.Taylor
  • Woodsia scopulina f. cathcartiana (B.L.Rob.) Clute
  • Woodsia scopulina var. cathcartiana (B.L.Rob.) Clute
  • Woodsiopsis oregana (D.C.Eaton) Shmakov
  • Woodsiopsis oregana subsp. cathcartiana (B.L.Rob.) Shmakov

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.