Matteuccia struthiopteris(L.) Tod.

ostrich fern

WFO wfo-0001109164 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Matteuccia struthiopteris, photographed by Eric Schmidt
fig. a Eric Schmidt, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-10 / obs. 205032114
Matteuccia struthiopteris, photographed by Michelle Norcéide
fig. b Michelle Norcéide, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205898972
Matteuccia struthiopteris, photographed by Matt Pelikan
fig. c Matt Pelikan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204452802
Matteuccia struthiopteris, photographed by Marina Potapova
fig. d Marina Potapova, CC0 1.0 / obs. 203208753
Matteuccia struthiopteris, photographed by Anastasia_Surkova
fig. e Anastasia_Surkova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204187303
Matteuccia struthiopteris, photographed by Anastasia_Surkova
fig. f Anastasia_Surkova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203605537
Matteuccia struthiopteris, photographed by Pierre Cartier
fig. g Pierre Cartier, CC0 1.0 / obs. 203194886
Matteuccia struthiopteris, photographed by Tom Scavo
fig. h Tom Scavo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205889995

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 57 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.

  • Matteuccia nodulosa Fernald
  • Matteuccia pensylvanica (Willd.) Raymond
  • Matteuccia pensylvanica f. obtusilobata (Clute) F.Seym.
  • Matteuccia pensylvanica f. pubescens (Terry) F.Seym.
  • Matteuccia pubescens Clute
  • Matteuccia struthiopteris f. pubescens (Terry) Clute
  • Matteuccia struthiopteris subsp. sinuata (Thunb.) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Matteuccia struthiopteris var. acutiloba Ching
  • Matteuccia struthiopteris var. pensylvanica (Willd.) C.V.Morton
  • Matteuccia struthiopteris var. pubescens Clute
  • Matteuccia struthiopteris var. struthiopteris
  • Onoclea nodulosa Schkuhr
  • Onoclea pensylvanica (Willd.) Sm.
  • Onoclea struthiopteris (L.) Hoffm.
  • Onoclea struthiopteris (L.) Roth
  • Onoclea struthiopteris f. foliacea (Farw.) B.Boivin
  • Onoclea struthiopteris f. obtusilobata Clute
  • Onoclea struthiopteris f. pubescens (Terry) B.Boivin
  • Onoclea struthiopteris var. pensylvanica (Willd.) B.Boivin
  • Onoclea struthiopteris var. pubescens (Terry) Clute
  • Osmunda struthiopteris L.
  • Pteretis nodulosa (Schkuhr) Nieuwl.
  • Pteretis nodulosa f. foliacea (Farw.) M.Broun
  • Pteretis nodulosa f. obtusilobata Fernald

and 33 more.

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.