Dryopteris arguta

California wood fern

Family: Dryopteridaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California wood fern is a native perennial found in northwestern California, the Sierra Nevada, Sutter Buttes, central and southern coastal California, southern California mountains, and southern Mojave Desert in open, wooded slopes and caves at elevations below 2,500 meters. Growing with large, distinctive fern fronds 30 to 60 centimeters long and up to 18 centimeters wide, this fern has a lanceolate blade that is intricately 1 to 2-pinnate with the longest pinnae typically located near the blade base. Its fronds feature minutely glandular midribs and stipes, with lance-ovate to lanceolate scales covering the pinna midribs. The fern's pinnae have segments with deeply pinnately lobed edges, some with distinctive bristle-like tooth tips that add texture to its elegant structure. Its complex leaf architecture allows it to thrive in diverse woodland and cave environments across multiple California bioregions.

Habitat: Locally common. Open, wooded slopes, caves

Elevation: < 2500 m

Bioregions: NW, SN, ScV (Sutter Buttes), CW, SW, MP (caves in Lava Beds National Monument), s DMoj

California counties: Tuolumne, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Tulare, Ventura, Sonoma, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Los Angeles, Orange, Nevada, Alameda, Butte, El Dorado, Fresno, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Lake, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, Siskiyou, Trinity, Contra Costa, Yuba, Amador, Placer, Calaveras, Sutter, Plumas, Sierra, Solano, Sacramento, Del Norte, Yolo, Alpine, Tehama, Stanislaus

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.