Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)

Polystichum acrostichoides (Michx.) Schott

Christmas fern

Christmas ferns are common and rugged ferns, so named because they remain green through the winter. They are native to eastern North America.

Identification: Like many ferns, fronds arise from a central root system, expanding outward in a funnel shape. Each stem (rachis) is very scaly, dark brown at the base, fading to green further up. Fronds are dark green and shiny. These ferns are mostly evergreen, looking flattened and bedraggled but otherwise intact in the winter. Fronds are 12–31 ⨉ 1¾–4½″ (30–80 ⨉ 5–12 cm), lanceolate, usually tapering rapidly above the middle. Only the upper portion of fertile fronds bear spores—this portion is significantly smaller. Each frond contains 20-40 pinnae (leaflets). The pinnae, each about 1½″ (4 cm) long, are also lanceolate, but with a distinctive bump on one side of the base, and fine teeth or spines along the leaf edges. The fiddleheads, called crosiers, are silvery and scaled.

Habitats: Woodlands and shady, rocky slopes, in both moist and dry settings.

Online References:

Wikipedia

The Missouri Botanical Garden

Go Botany

References:

Cobb, Boughton, Farnsworth, Elizabeth & Lowe, Cheryl, Peterson Field Guides: Ferns of Northeastern and Central North America, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005, p. 198

Sterile pinnae. · 9/15/2012 · Mt. Wachusett, Princeton, Massachusetts · ≈ 11 × 7″ (27 × 18 cm)

3/22/2025 · Owens Mouth Preserve West, Boothbay, Maine · ≈ 10 × 6″ (24 × 16 cm)

4/23/2023 · Butler Head Preserve, Bath, Maine

4/29/2010 · Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, Chelmsford, Massachusetts · ≈ 15 × 10″ (39 × 26 cm)

9/5/2020 · Hedgehog Mountain, Freeport, Maine · ≈ 4 × 6″ (10 × 15 cm)

7/19/2012 · Red Pine Trail, Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Rte. 130, Hollis, New Hampshire · ≈ 14 × 9″ (35 × 23 cm)

8/24/2009 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, Massachusetts · ≈ 2½ × 3½″ (6.6 × 9.8 cm)

Crested form. · 5/22/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts · ≈ 1½ × 1′ (52 × 34 cm)

5/23/2016 · Wildflower Trail, Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, New Hampshire

9/15/2010 · Red Dot Trail, Long Lake Park, Littleton, Massachusetts · ≈ 4 × 4½″ (10 × 11 cm)

7/3/2012 · By Jacquelyn Boyt

9/15/2010 · Red Dot Trail, Long Lake Park, Littleton, Massachusetts · ≈ 14 × 9″ (35 × 23 cm)

Incised form. · 9/14/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts · ≈ 3 × 4″ (7.9 × 10 cm)

8/23/2009 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, Massachusetts · ≈ 17 × 12″ (44 × 29 cm)

The smaller pinnae near the end of the frond are the fertile ones. · 9/15/2012 · Mt. Wachusett, Princeton, Massachusetts · ≈ 9 × 6″ (23 × 15 cm)

Incised form. · 9/14/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts · ≈ 1½ × 1′ (52 × 34 cm)

9/5/2020 · Hedgehog Mountain, Freeport, Maine · ≈ 5 × 4″ (13 × 10 cm)

5/30/2025 · Bass Falls Preserve, Alna, Maine · ≈ 8 × 12″ (20 × 31 cm)

5/23/2016 · Wildflower Trail, Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, New Hampshire

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin)
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Pteridophyta	Ferns
Class	Filicopsida	“Leptosporangiate” (has to do with how their spores form) ferns—includes most ferns
Order	Polypodiales	Polypod ferns
Family	Dryopteridaceae	Wood ferns (about 70% of the ferns)
Genus	Polystichum	From the Greek polys, “many,” and stichos, “row,” referring to the rows of sori on the type species
Species	acrostichoides	Like genus Acostichum

About plant names...

Range: Zones 3-9:

About this map...

Polystichum acrostichoides description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.