Dryopteris intermediaA.Gray

intermediate wood fern

WFO wfo-0001107305 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Dryopteris intermedia, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. a Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-13 / obs. 205883042
Dryopteris intermedia, photographed by Alina Martin
fig. b Alina Martin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204504406
Dryopteris intermedia, photographed by Nick Kleinschmidt
fig. c Nick Kleinschmidt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205444868
Dryopteris intermedia, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. d Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202804068
Dryopteris intermedia, photographed by Nick Kleinschmidt
fig. e Nick Kleinschmidt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203387893
Dryopteris intermedia, photographed by Nick Kleinschmidt
fig. f Nick Kleinschmidt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203388246
Dryopteris intermedia, photographed by Nick Kleinschmidt
fig. g Nick Kleinschmidt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203387766
Dryopteris intermedia, photographed by Carter Dorscht
fig. h Carter Dorscht, CC0 1.0 / obs. 201878580

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Also published as 22 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Aspidium americanum Davenp.
  • Aspidium dilatatum var. azoricum Christ
  • Aspidium grayanum Regel
  • Aspidium intermedium Willd.
  • Aspidium spinulosum f. maderensis Milde
  • Dryopteris austriaca var. intermedia (Willd.) C.V.Morton
  • Dryopteris azorica (Christ) Alston
  • Dryopteris intermedia f. furcata C.F.Reed
  • Dryopteris intermedia f. sparsifrondosa C.F.Reed
  • Dryopteris maderensis Alston
  • Dryopteris spinulosa var. intermedia (Willd.) Underw.
  • Filix spinulosa var. intermedia (Willd.) Farw.
  • Filix-mas spinulosa var. intermedia (Willd.) Farw.
  • Filix-mas spinulosa var. intermedia Farw.
  • Lastrea intermedia (Muhl. ex Willd.) C.Presl
  • Nephrodium intermedium (Willd.) C.Presl
  • Nephrodium spinulosum f. intermedium (Willd.) Gilbert
  • Nephrodium spinulosum var. intermedium (Willd.) Davenp.
  • Polypodium intermedium Muhl.
  • Thelypteris intermedia House
  • Thelypteris spinulosa f. intermedia (Willd. ex Test)
  • Thelypteris spinulosa var. intermedia Nieuwl.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.