Few ferns share their scientific name with their only common name, and Polystichum andersonii Hopkins is one of them: there is no separate common name recorded for this plant, so botanists and field guides alike simply call it by its Latin binomial.
It belongs to the fern family Dryopteridaceae, set within the order Polypodiales and the class Polypodiopsida, a lineage of vascular plants classified under the phylum Tracheophyta in the kingdom Plantae. This places it among the true ferns rather than the mosses or seed plants that often share its forest habitat.
Distribution and Habitat
Polystichum andersonii grows in lowland coastal to midmontane forests, as well as in interior moist forests, spanning an elevation range of roughly 100 to 1,700 meters. This spread lets the fern occupy both humid coastal lowlands and cooler, higher-elevation forest interiors within the same general range.
Monthly observation records show a strong seasonal pattern, with counts climbing sharply from a handful in the winter months to peaks of 181, 241, and 242 in the late spring and summer, before tapering off again by autumn. This pattern most likely reflects when people are out hiking and recording plants rather than any real seasonal appearance or disappearance of the fern itself, since GBIF occurrence data represent presence observations, not abundance or a complete picture of the species' native range.
Photos
Photographs from via iNaturalist, licensed under CC0 1.0., by Matt Berger via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., by Noah How via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., by Timothy McNitt via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., and by Caleb Catto via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., credited on each photo.
Ecology and classification
Classification
- Phylum
- Tracheophyta
- Class
- Polypodiopsida
- Order
- Polypodiales
- Family
- Dryopteridaceae
- Genus
- Polystichum
- Species
- Polystichum andersonii
Sources
- GBIF Species names and classification
- iNaturalist Photos
- Wikidata Common names and conservation status
- Encyclopedia of Life Habitat, diet and behavior traits
