70 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Dryopteris wallichiana, the alpine wood fern, is a robust species of deciduous or semi-evergreen fern in the family Dryopteridaceae, native to the Himalayas, Hawaii, Mexico and Jamaica. It grows to 90 cm (35 in) tall, occasionally 180 cm (71 in) by 75 cm (30 in) wide, with pale green tripinnate fronds, strongly contrasting with the dark brown ribs.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dryopteris wallichiana", CC BY-SA 4.0.
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 ›
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dryopteris", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a fern or moss, listed under the genus Dryopteris in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,210 mm of 1,606 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
1,606 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,210 mm of it May to October. Wettest months (2 at 234 mm), driest month January at 47 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,055 mm to 3,334 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,684 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,606 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: 29 to 40 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 3.2 °C, the absolute minimum 0.0 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 18.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 1.2 °C to 11.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 19.4 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 68% 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 +505 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 Dryopteris 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
Mean daily high from 17 °C in Jan, Nov and Dec to 19 °C in Mar, Apr, May, Jun and Aug; mean nightly low from 7 °C in Jan, Feb and Dec to 10 °C in May, Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 3 months in a row that tie for it. 1,606 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest months (2 at 234 mm). The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 327 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 0.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 18.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 17 / 12–20 | 18 / 13–21 | 19 / 14–23 | 19 / 15–25 | 19 / 15–24 | 19 / 15–22 | 18 / 15–22 | 19 / 15–22 | 18 / 15–22 | 18 / 14–21 | 17 / 14–21 | 17 / 13–20 |
| Night °C | 7 / 1–11 | 7 / 2–12 | 8 / 4–13 | 9 / 6–13 | 10 / 6–15 | 10 / 7–15 | 10 / 6–15 | 10 / 6–16 | 10 / 7–15 | 9 / 6–14 | 8 / 4–13 | 7 / 2–12 |
| Rain mm | 47 / 17–187 | 55 / 15–184 | 60 / 11–240 | 88 / 18–297 | 123 / 61–345 | 228 / 87–398 | 234 / 79–420 | 232 / 77–435 | 234 / 87–432 | 159 / 86–312 | 84 / 20–301 | 62 / 10–247 |
| DLI | 31 / 23–34 | 34 / 27–39 | 36 / 29–45 | 39 / 26–48 | 40 / 25–45 | 34 / 24–41 | 34 / 26–40 | 34 / 28–39 | 31 / 28–37 | 31 / 26–34 | 29 / 24–33 | 29 / 22–32 |
| RH % | 60 / 52–68 | 60 / 50–68 | 60 / 47–69 | 61 / 48–70 | 64 / 53–70 | 66 / 61–70 | 66 / 61–71 | 66 / 60–71 | 68 / 61–72 | 66 / 61–71 | 64 / 57–70 | 62 / 54–69 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Harrison Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) EstebanMH, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Gaultheria erecta Ericaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Plagiogyria pectinata Plagiogyriaceae Photo: CC BY, Peter Quakenbush
Alnus acuminata Alder Photo: CC BY-SA, Carlo Brescia
Valeriana clematitis Caprifoliaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, julianazuluaga-carrero
Campyloneurum amphostenon Polypodiaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Calceolaria mexicana Mexican calceolaria Photo: CC0, author not statedOther Dryopteris 75 in the reference
Dryopteris aemula Hay-scented Buckler-fern Photo: CC BY, Rocco Lieghio
Dryopteris affinis Scaly male fern Photo: CC0, pondbob
Dryopteris aitoniana Madeira Buckler-fern Photo: CC BY, Sam J. Thomas Dryopteris × ambroseae Dryopteridaceae 
Dryopteris amurensis Amur wood fern Photo: CC BY, Violetta Dzizyurova
Dryopteris ardechensis Cévennes Male-fern Photo: CC BY-SA, Chérif-Jacques Allali
Dryopteris arguta Coastal wood fern Photo: CC BY, Matt Berger Dryopteris assamensis Dryopteridaceae 
Dryopteris atrata Shaggy shield fern Photo: CC BY, Jacy Chen
Dryopteris × australis Woodfern Photo: CC BY-SA, lejones417
Dryopteris bissetiana Mountain buckler fern Photo: CC BY, Yoshihiro Tokue
Dryopteris blanfordii Dryopteridaceae Photo: Public domain, Stickpen all 76 ›Names & registers
Also known as Aspidium filix-mas var. parallelogrammum; Dryopteris cyrtolepis var. typica; Dryopteris wallichiana var. wallichiana. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 11 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 5.00_-73.750, lapse-corrected +505 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 159 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.