Species
+

Dryopteris erythrosora (D.C.Eaton) Kuntze

Autumn fern, Autumn fern (EN), Japanese shield fern, beni-shida

Climate known 59 photographs Fern or moss
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Dryopteris erythrosora, the autumn fern or Japanese shield fern, is a species of fern in the family Dryopteridaceae, native to China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto and Taiwan.

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

About the genus · Dryopteris

Dryopteris, commonly called the wood ferns, male ferns, or buckler ferns, is a fern genus in the family Dryopteridaceae, subfamily Dryopteridoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). There are about 300-400 species in the genus. The species are distributed in Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific islands, with the highest diversity in eastern Asia. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Dryopteris”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Dryopteridaceae
Described by
(D.C.Eaton) Kuntze
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan +3
Wild records
1369 in range· 1282 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1881mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 259 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 Dryopteris, 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 1881 mm a year, wettest July at 259 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 -3.7 °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 ? prolificum Maxim.; Aspidium erythrosorum D.C.Eaton; Aspidium filix-mas var. erythrosorum (D.C.Eaton) Christ; Aspidium prolificum Maxim.; Aspidium prolificum Maxim. ex Franch. & Sav. and 25 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a fern or moss by the genus Dryopteris, 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 (1410 mm of 1881 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.5 °C against a yearly mean of 15.0 °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 1881 mm a year, wettest July at 259 mm, driest December at 61 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1881 mm a year at the habitat, 1410 mm of it April to October. Wettest month July at 259 mm, driest December at 61 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1397 mm to 2903 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

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 -3.7 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.7 °C, the absolute minimum -8.8 °C, about 57 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.6 °C to 4.9 °C), warmest day 28.3 °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 -3.7 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a fern or moss (grouped by the genus Dryopteris, 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: 57 to 67% 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 7 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from 0 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1881 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1122 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -8.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.0 °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°frost35.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-8.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–35RH 57–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1122 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 °C7 / 3–108 / 4–1011 / 8–1416 / 13–1820 / 18–2224 / 21–2527 / 25–2928 / 26–3025 / 23–2720 / 17–2215 / 12–1710 / 6–12
Night °C0 / -5–51 / -4–54 / -1–89 / 5–1213 / 10–1618 / 15–2022 / 19–2423 / 20–2520 / 16–2214 / 10–178 / 4–123 / -2–7
Rain mm71 / 42–20389 / 49–161144 / 87–213146 / 105–233176 / 124–270235 / 160–423259 / 160–392198 / 127–318230 / 174–351166 / 94–239106 / 67–20261 / 39–201
DLI17 / 14–1922 / 20–2427 / 25–2933 / 31–3435 / 32–3732 / 28–3532 / 29–3433 / 30–3526 / 23–2822 / 19–2417 / 15–1915 / 13–17
RH %57 / 54–6357 / 54–6258 / 56–6159 / 57–6161 / 59–6465 / 62–6867 / 64–7166 / 63–6964 / 62–6761 / 58–6460 / 56–6258 / 55–62

Each figure is the median across the 1122 grid cells holding the 1347 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 1089:6389 (35.525, 139.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.0 °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 1122 distinct grid cells holding the 1347 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1089:6389 (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 35.50_139.375, lapse-corrected -167 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 66 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.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan· introduced: Great Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker35.522, 139.192 · in the densest population, 723 records (53% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1369 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1282 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 372 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 22 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 2° block of the 1369 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dryopteris erythrosoraDryopteris erythrosoraDryopteris erythrosoraDryopteris erythrosoraDryopteris erythrosoraDryopteris erythrosoraDryopteris erythrosoraDryopteris erythrosora

Photographs: (c) Chris Hoess, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Anne Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (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 Dryopteris erythrosora, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Seasonal dynamics of total flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity of Dryopteris erythrosora
Yinghua Xie, Yunxia Zheng, Xiling Dai, Quanxi Wang (2014) · Food Chemistry
UPTAKE AND DISTRIBUTION OF SELENIUM IN DIFFERENT FERN SPECIES
Mrittunjai Srivastava, Q. Lena, Joseph A. Cotruvo (2005) · International Journal of Phytoremediation
External Factors Inducing Germination of Fern Spores
Eric S. Weinberg, Bruce R. Voeller (1969) · American Fern Journal
Beneficial Effect of Rare Earth Elements on the Growth of Dryopteris Erythrosora
Takuo Ozaki, Shuichi Enomoto, Yoshitaka Minai, Shizuko Ambe (2000) · Journal of Plant Physiology
Phylogenetic analyses place the Australian monotypic Revwattsia in Dryopteris (Dryopteridaceae)
Meghan McKeown, Michael Sundue, David S. Barrington (2012) · PhytoKeys
Locked up Inside the Vessels: Rare Earth Elements Are Transferred and Stored in the Conductive Tissues of the Accumulating Fern Dryopteris erythrosora
Marie Le Jean, Emmanuelle Montargès‐Pelletier, Camille Rivard, Nicolas Grosjean (2023) · Environmental Science & Technology
Screening of Biological Activities in Fern Plants Native to Jeju Island
Soonja Oh, Sung-Soo Hong, Yeon‐Hee Kim, Seok-Chan Koh (2008)

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.

Other Dryopteris 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 83 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.