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Coastal woodfern

Dryopteris arguta

Also called California Wood Fern, Coastal Shield Fern, Coastal Wood Fern, Marginal Wood Fern

Coastal woodfern
Photo: Gordon Leppig & Andrea J. Pickart, Public domain

Coastal woodfern (Dryopteris arguta) is a native North American fern found from British Columbia through California into Arizona, mostly in shaded woodland and forest. It likes cool, shaded, moist conditions and is grown in gardens as a woodland fern.

Family
Dryopteridaceae (Wood fern family)
Grows as
Fern
Light
Part shade, Shade
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist, never soggy, and water more during dry summers.
Soil
Humusy, well-drained woodland soil with plenty of leaf litter or compost.
Temperature
Cool to mild conditions, roughly 5–22 °C; tolerates winter cold once established.
How easy
Easy
Native range
W. Canada (Vancouver I.) to Mexico (Baja California Norte)
Climate
temperate

About

Dryopteris arguta, with the common name coastal woodfern, is a species of wood fern. It is native to the west coast and western interior mountain ranges of North America, from British Columbia, throughout California, and into Arizona.

It grows between sea level and 6,000 feet (1,800 m). It is found in mixed evergreen forests, oak woodlands, and shady lower elevation slopes in chaparral and woodlands habitats.

Other Dryopteris plants

Scaly Male Fern · Shaggy Wood Fern · Broad buckler-fern · Autumn Fern · Male fern · Intermediate woodfern · Southern woodfern · Siebold's Wood Fern · Alpine woodfern · Woodfern · Wood Fern

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dryopteris arguta by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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