Common Lady Fern
Athyrium filix-femina (L.) Roth
- light
- Shade
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 76 cm
- wide
- 61 cm
Aspleniaceae
Also called Lady fern, Subarctic lady fern, Lady-fern
Formerly Allantodia axillaris, Aspidium axillare, Aspidium cordatum, Aspidium filix-femina, and 41 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- PerennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Macaronesia, NW. Africa, Europe to Russian Far East and IranKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Shade (under 3 h)Read from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: NC State Extension part, shade; Wikipedia shade
- Height
- 61 cm to 91 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 30 cm to 91 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, not yet checked: its sources are splitTied: no reading has a majority of the 2 sources, so all are kept for a person to settle. Sources differ: NC State Extension medium; Wikipedia high
- Coldest it survives
- -30 °C (USDA zone 4b)Read from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked: the middle of what its sources sayHalfway between its 2 sources, which differ. Sources differ: NC State Extension -40 °C; Wikipedia -20 °C
Not known yet: flowers, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Catalan
- falguera femella
- French
- Fougère-femelle commune, fougère femelle, Athyrium fougère-femelle
- root
- ATHFIL, Fheleitscha, Raithneach Mhuire
- German
- Gewöhnlicher Frauenfarn, Frauenfarn, Wald-Frauenfarn
- Polish
- Wietlica samicza
- Italian
- felce femmina
- Dutch
- Wijfjesvaren, wijfjesvaren
- Czech
- papratka samičí
- Chinese
- 蹄蓋蕨
- Danish
- Fjerbregne, Almindelig Fjerbregne
- Russian
- Кочедыжник женский
- Norwegian Bokmål
- skogburkne
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-26, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY 2.5
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-26, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-26, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-26, CC BY
- 3D model: Athyrium filix-femina (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.