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Athyrium distentifolium; photograph Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAJerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Athyrium distentifolium Tausch ex Opiz

Aspleniaceae · Finland, Great Britain +29 · listed by its genus as a fern or moss

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Athyrium distentifolium, photograph Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsAthyrium distentifolium, photograph Petr Filippov, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsAthyrium distentifolium, photograph HermannSchachner, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsAthyrium distentifolium, photograph HermannSchachner, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsAthyrium distentifolium, photograph HermannSchachner, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsAthyrium distentifolium, photograph brewbooks from near Seattle, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-20.7°C
Record low -32.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
15°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,722mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
6–35DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Athyrium distentifolium commonly known as alpine lady-fern is a perennial fern found in widely in the Northern Hemisphere.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Athyrium distentifolium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Athyrium

Athyrium (lady-fern) is a genus of about 180 species of terrestrial ferns, with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is placed in the family Athyriaceae, in the order Polypodiales. Its genus name is from Greek a- ('without') and Latinized Greek thyreos ('shield'), describing its inconspicuous indusium . More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Athyrium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a fern or moss, listed under the genus Athyrium in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,185 mm of 1,660 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 18.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Rain

1,660 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,185 mm of it June to January. Wettest month August at 162 mm, driest month February at 109 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,108 mm to 2,538 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,722 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,660 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 0, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -20.7 °C, the absolute minimum -32.5 °C, 9,353 frost nights in 44 years, 212.6 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -11.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -15.9 °C to -6.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 15.0 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -20.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -307 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Athyrium in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Athyrium distentifolium through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 15 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -11.0 °C; 1,660 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost22.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-32.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 6–35RH 62–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1158 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-5 / -9–1-4 / -8–2-1 / -5–53 / -1–98 / 3–1412 / 9–1715 / 12–1914 / 11–1911 / 6–156 / 1–110 / -5–5-4 / -9–2
Night °C-11 / -16–-6-11 / -15–-6-8 / -12–-3-5 / -8–0-1 / -4–44 / 1–87 / 3–107 / 3–103 / -1–7-1 / -5–3-7 / -11–-2-10 / -15–-5
Rain mm133 / 70–269109 / 57–203122 / 69–196113 / 63–168131 / 74–207139 / 91–225155 / 100–248162 / 105–247158 / 99–250152 / 90–274143 / 86–244143 / 78–257
DLI7 / 0–1212 / 4–1920 / 12–2829 / 24–3535 / 31–3835 / 31–3933 / 27–4028 / 20–3521 / 12–2714 / 5–198 / 1–136 / 0–10
RH %62 / 56–7162 / 57–7062 / 59–6962 / 60–6662 / 60–6563 / 60–6563 / 59–6664 / 60–6765 / 61–6964 / 60–7164 / 59–7263 / 57–71
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1158 grid cells holding the 1419 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 577:3772 (61.125, 8.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -32.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -20.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1158 distinct grid cells holding 1419 of the 1419 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 577:3772 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 61.00_8.750, lapse-corrected -307 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 715 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 5275045 (Athyrium distentifolium Tausch ex Opiz, 2000 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeFinland, Great Britain, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, East European Russia, North European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, Buryatiya, Irkutsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Turkey, Japan, Korea · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker45.427, 6.359 · in the densest population, 748 records (44% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1681 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1419 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1389 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 65 km away. 13 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 262 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 5275045 (Athyrium distentifolium Tausch ex Opiz): Kew's file holds it as Athyrium distentifolium Tausch ex Opiz (accepted); 2,000 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1681 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Athyrium distentifolium, photograph 1did not loadAthyrium distentifolium, photograph 2did not loadAthyrium distentifolium, photograph 3did not loadAthyrium distentifolium, photograph 4did not loadAthyrium distentifolium, photograph 5did not loadAthyrium distentifolium, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Petr Filippov, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; HermannSchachner, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (3); brewbooks from near Seattle, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Micranthes stellaris Micranthes stellaris Starry saxifrage Photo: CC BY, Milan ChytrýBartsia alpina Bartsia alpina Alpine bartsia Photo: CC0, author not stated Lycopodium alpinum Lycopodiaceae Veronica fruticans Veronica fruticans Rock speedwell Photo: CC BY, Antoine ThivolleViola biflora Viola biflora Alpine yellow-violet Photo: CC BY, Oleg KosterinEpilobium anagallidifolium Epilobium anagallidifolium Alpine willowherb Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Athyrium 13 in the reference

Athyrium americanum Athyrium americanum Alpine ladyfern Photo: CC BY, James H. ThomasAthyrium angustum Athyrium angustum Subarctic lady fern Photo: CC BY, Karen SaundersAthyrium asplenioides Athyrium asplenioides Southern lady fern Photo: CC BY, David Wilkins Athyrium crenulatoserrulatum Aspleniaceae Athyrium cyclosorum Athyrium cyclosorum Western Lady Fern Photo: CC0, Ellyne GeurtsAthyrium filix-femina Athyrium filix-femina Lady-fern Photo: CC0, author not stated Athyrium iseanum Narrow-leaf ladyfern Athyrium microphyllum Athyrium microphyllum Akolea Photo: CC0, author not statedAthyrium otophorum Athyrium otophorum Eared lady fern Photo: CC0, author not statedAthyrium rubripes Athyrium rubripes Athyriaceae Photo: CC BY, Violetta DzizyurovaAthyrium strigillosum Athyrium strigillosum Athyriaceae Photo: CC BY, Jacy ChenAthyrium vidalii Athyrium vidalii Vidal’s ladyfern Photo: CC BY-SA, harum.koh all 14 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Aspidium alpestre; Asplenium alpestre; Asplenium rhaeticum; Athyrium cordatum; Athyrium flexile and 17 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Aspleniaceae
Described by
Tausch ex Opiz
Native to
Finland, Great Britain, Iceland +28
Wild records
1681 in range · 1389 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Athyrium distentifolium Tausch ex Opiz (plant_name_id 3173148), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 2000 records of GBIF's key 5275045, Athyrium distentifolium Tausch ex Opiz (Kew's file holds it as Athyrium distentifolium Tausch ex Opiz (accepted)): the GBIF download; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 61.00_8.750, lapse-corrected -307 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 30045965-2, POWO 30045965-2
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 142 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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