Species
+

Polystichum setiferum (Forssk.) T.Moore ex Woyn.

Borstiger Schildfarn (DE); Penco (ES), English hedge fern, Soft Shield-Fern, Soft shield fern

Climate known 88 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

Polystichum setiferum, or the soft shield fern, is an evergreen or semi-evergreen fern native to southern and western Europe. The stalks and most midribs are coated with cinnamon-brown scales. The Latin specific epithet setiferum means "with bristles".

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

About the genus · Polystichum

Polystichum is a genus of ferns in the family Dryopteridaceae, subfamily Dryopteridoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016. The genus has about 500 species and has a cosmopolitan distribution. The highest diversity is in eastern Asia, with about 208 species in China alone; the region from Mexico to Brazil has at least 100 additional species; Africa, North America, and Europe have much lower diversity. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Dryopteridaceae
Described by
(Forssk.) T.Moore ex Woyn.
Native to
Great Britain, Ireland, Austria +34
Wild records
774 in range· 296 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
947mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 103 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–37DLI
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 Polystichum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 947 mm a year, wettest October at 103 mm, driest July at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 5 °C (archetype minimum for a fern or moss, above the -1.7 °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 aculeatum subsp. angulare (Kit. ex Willd.) Arcang.; Aspidium aculeatum subsp. angulare (Kit. ex Willd.) Asch., 1896; Aspidium aculeatum subsp. angulare (Willd.) Hook.fil.; Aspidium aculeatum subsp. swartzianum (W.D.J.Koch) Celak.; Aspidium aculeatum var. angulare (Kit. ex Willd.) H.C.Watson and 30 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a fern or moss by the genus Polystichum, 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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (685 mm of 947 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 12.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and September to November.

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 947 mm a year, wettest October at 103 mm, driest July at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

947 mm a year at the habitat, 685 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month October at 103 mm, driest July at 60 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 713 mm to 1506 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: 6 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 37 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 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 -1.7 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.7 °C, the absolute minimum -7.9 °C, about 14 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.3 °C in February (across the envelope cells -0.4 °C to 5.1 °C), warmest day 21.6 °C in July (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 -1.7 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a fern or moss (grouped by the genus Polystichum, 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: 61 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 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 947 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 504 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -7.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 23.1 °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°frost23.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-7.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 6–37RH 61–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 504 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 / 5–118 / 6–1210 / 9–1413 / 11–1617 / 14–2019 / 16–2422 / 18–2722 / 18–2719 / 16–2315 / 13–1911 / 9–148 / 5–11
Night °C2 / -1–62 / -0–54 / 2–65 / 4–89 / 7–1112 / 10–1514 / 12–1714 / 12–1812 / 10–159 / 7–126 / 3–93 / 0–6
Rain mm88 / 59–15067 / 47–11974 / 52–12070 / 47–13575 / 56–12667 / 46–9760 / 28–9368 / 39–10879 / 56–123103 / 72–17298 / 67–17398 / 67–174
DLI7 / 4–1212 / 9–1820 / 16–2629 / 25–3335 / 31–3937 / 32–4437 / 31–4531 / 26–3923 / 18–2914 / 11–208 / 5–136 / 3–10
RH %66 / 61–6964 / 60–6663 / 59–6562 / 59–6461 / 59–6462 / 58–6562 / 56–6562 / 57–6663 / 58–6564 / 62–6766 / 62–6867 / 62–70

Each figure is the median across the 504 grid cells holding the 767 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 733:3540 (53.325, -2.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.1 °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 504 distinct grid cells holding the 767 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 733:3540 (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 53.50_-3.125, lapse-corrected -34 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 24 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.
NativeGreat Britain, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey· introduced: Czechoslovakia
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker48.54, -2.04 · in the densest population, 304 records (39% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 774 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 296 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 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 774 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Polystichum setiferumPolystichum setiferumPolystichum setiferumPolystichum setiferumPolystichum setiferumPolystichum setiferumPolystichum setiferumPolystichum setiferum

Photographs: (c) Clément Maouche, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Mary E. Macaulay, P.Eng., some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media 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 Polystichum setiferum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Inter-and intraspecific variation in fern mating systems after long-distance colonization: the importance of selfing
G.A. de Groot, Betty Verduyn, E. R. Jasper Wubs, Roy H. J. Erkens (2012) · BMC Plant Biology
Diverse spore rains and limited local exchange shape fern genetic diversity in a recently created habitat colonized by long-distance dispersal
G.A. de Groot, Heinjo J. During, Stephen W. Ansell, Harald Schneider (2012) · Annals of Botany
BRITISH RUST FUNGI: ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS
D. M. Henderson (1979) · Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Leaf hydraulic architecture and water relations of three ferns from contrasting light habitats
Maria A. Lo Gullo, Fabio Raimondo, Alessandro Crisafulli, Sebastiano Salleo (2010) · Functional Plant Biology
A Comparative Study of the Gametophytic Generation in thePolystichum aculeatumGroup (Pteridophyta)
Emilia Pangua, Luís G. Quintanilla, Alejandra Sancho, Santiago Pajarón (2003) · International Journal of Plant Sciences
Adatok Magyarország flórájához és vegetációjához II.
Eszter Aradi, László Erdős, Viktória Viktória, Csaba Tölgyesi (2017) · Kitaibelia
Volatiles of French Ferns and “fougère” Scent in Perfumery
Didier Froissard, Françoise Fons, Jean‐Marie Bessière, Bruno Buatois (2011) · Natural Product Communications
Phytosociology and phytogeography of fragmented Alnus glutinosa forests in a Tyrrhenian district (Central Italy)
Maurizio Cutini, Laura Cancellieri, Maria-Teresa Cioffi, Claudio Licursi (2010) · Ecologia mediterranea
Pteridophyte flora of Lesvos (East Aegean Islands. Greece)
Ioannis Bazos, A. Yannitsaros (2010) · Edinburgh Journal of Botany
Adatok a Kisalföld flórájának ismeretéhez IV.
Dávid Schmidt, Győző Haszonits (2021) · Botanikai Közlemények

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 Polystichum 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 search API
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 did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.