Species
+

Cyrtomium falcatum (L.fil.) C.Presl

Asian hollyfern, House Holly-Fern, Japanese holly fern, Japanese holly-fern

Climate known 63 photographs Fern or moss
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Cyrtomium falcatum is a species of fern, commonly known as house holly-fern and Japanese holly fern, in the wood fern family Dryopteridaceae. It is native to eastern Asia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cyrtomium falcatum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Cyrtomium

Cyrtomium is a genus of about 35 species of ferns in the family Dryopteridaceae, subfamily Dryopteridoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016. Species are native to Asia, Africa, and the Pacific Ocean islands (Hawaii). It is very closely related to the genus Polystichum, with 2016 research suggesting it should be included in a clade sister to Polystichum s.s.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cyrtomium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Dryopteridaceae
Described by
(L.fil.) C.Presl
Native to
Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast +7
Wild records
658 in range· 503 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1857mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 244 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a fern or moss by the genus Cyrtomium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1857 mm a year, wettest July at 244 mm, driest December at 61 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 5 °C (archetype minimum for a fern or moss, above the 0.7 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Aspidium falcatum var. genuinum Makino; Cyrtomium falcatum (L.f.) Copel.

Cultivation

Grouped as a fern or moss by the genus Cyrtomium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1399 mm of 1857 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.9 °C against a yearly mean of 16.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1857 mm a year, wettest July at 244 mm, driest December at 61 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1857 mm a year at the habitat, 1399 mm of it April to October. Wettest month July at 244 mm, driest December at 61 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1309 mm to 3167 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 5 °C (archetype minimum for a fern or moss, above the 0.7 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 0.7 °C, the absolute minimum -4.4 °C, about 2 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.2 °C to 13.9 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 0.7 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a fern or moss (grouped by the genus Cyrtomium, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 5 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 8 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1857 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 558 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost32.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–35RH 55–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 558 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / 4–179 / 5–1712 / 7–1916 / 12–2120 / 16–2423 / 20–2626 / 24–2928 / 25–2925 / 23–2721 / 18–2516 / 12–2211 / 7–19
Night °C4 / -1–144 / -1–147 / 2–1611 / 7–1915 / 12–2219 / 16–2423 / 20–2624 / 21–2722 / 18–2516 / 13–2311 / 7–196 / 2–16
Rain mm70 / 36–21986 / 49–183134 / 77–236142 / 95–242170 / 116–293236 / 151–421244 / 155–356233 / 131–319222 / 158–387152 / 56–273107 / 51–24661 / 28–216
DLI16 / 14–1921 / 18–2327 / 24–2933 / 30–3535 / 32–3733 / 30–3634 / 31–4034 / 31–3727 / 25–3124 / 20–2618 / 15–1915 / 12–17
RH %55 / 53–6256 / 54–6257 / 55–6260 / 57–6463 / 60–6667 / 64–7068 / 65–7367 / 64–7063 / 61–6759 / 57–6357 / 55–6256 / 53–61

Each figure is the median across the 558 grid cells holding the 649 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1107:6282 (34.625, 134.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 558 distinct grid cells holding the 649 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1107:6282 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.50_134.375, lapse-corrected -38 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 41 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeManchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Vietnam· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Baleares, France, Sardegna, Spain, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Selvagens, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Palestine, Philippines, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Hawaii, Oregon, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, California, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, Bermuda, Peru, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“perennial or lithophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker34.075, 134.147 · in the densest population, 365 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 658 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 503 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 94 km away. 979 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 658 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cyrtomium falcatumCyrtomium falcatumCyrtomium falcatumCyrtomium falcatumCyrtomium falcatumCyrtomium falcatumCyrtomium falcatumCyrtomium falcatum

Photographs: (c) Carmon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Caleb Catto, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cyrtomium falcatum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

XYLEM ANATOMY, WATER FLOW, AND HYDRAULIC CONDUCTANCE IN THE FERN CYRTOMIUM FALCATUM
Arthur C. Gibson, Howard W. Calkin, Park S. Nobel (1984) · American Journal of Botany
Xylem Anatomy, Water Flow, and Hydraulic Conductance in the Fern Cyrtomium falcatum
Arthur C. Gibson, Howard W. Calkin, Park S. Nobel (1984) · American Journal of Botany
The Effect of Sucrose on Apogamy in Cyrtomium falcatum Presl
P. Whittier (1964) · American Fern Journal
A novel plant virus with unique properties infecting Japanese holly fern
Rodrigo A. Valverde, Sead Sabanadzovic (2009) · Journal of General Virology
Contributions to the fern flora of Hungary with special attention to built walls
Júlia Tamás, Gábor Vida, Péter Csontos (2017) · Botanikai Közlemények
Water relations and xylem anatomy of ferns
Arthur C. Gibson, Howard W. Calkin, David Olamide Raphael, Park S. Nobel (1985) · Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Section B Biological Sciences
Quantitative analysis of diverse sporomorph-derived sporopollenins
Klaas G.J. Nierop, Gerard J M Versteegh, T. R. Filley, J.W. de Leeuw (2019) · Phytochemistry
In Vitro Development of Gametophyte and Sporophyte in Several Fern Species
Liliana Cristina Soare (2008) · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 136 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.