Woodwardia proliferaHook. & Arn.

WFO wfo-0001126560 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Woodwardia prolifera, photographed by lansan
fig. a lansan, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-09-14 / obs. 51292640
Woodwardia prolifera, photographed by chiuluan
fig. b chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179364536
Woodwardia prolifera, photographed by 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi)
fig. c 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 164203893
Woodwardia prolifera, photographed by Chen Jia Hong
fig. d Chen Jia Hong, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143581066
Woodwardia prolifera, photographed by 葉子
fig. e 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 95832609
Woodwardia prolifera, photographed by chiuluan
fig. f chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 85404313
Woodwardia prolifera, photographed by chiuluan
fig. g chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 85236216
Woodwardia prolifera, photographed by Pieter Pelser
fig. h Pieter Pelser, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 29906342

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 5 botanical countries

Regions where Woodwardia prolifera is native: China Southeast, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Philippines China SoutheastJapanTaiwanPhilippines Nansei-shoto
Native distribution of Woodwardia prolifera, 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 Southeast CHS ASIA-TEMPERATE
Japan JAP
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Philippines PHI 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.

Also published as 5 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.

  • Woodwardia angustiloba Hance
  • Woodwardia exaltata Nakai
  • Woodwardia orientalis var. formosana Rosenst.
  • Woodwardia orientalis var. prolifera (Hook. & Arn.) Ching
  • Woodwardia prolifera var. formosana (Rosenst.) Ching & P.S.Chiu

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.