Onoclea sensibilisL.

sensitive fern

WFO wfo-0001109206 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Onoclea sensibilis, photographed by Benoit Renaud
fig. a Benoit Renaud, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205358958
Onoclea sensibilis, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. b Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 205897010
Onoclea sensibilis, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. c Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205625945
Onoclea sensibilis, photographed by Mark Apgar
fig. d Mark Apgar, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205222826
Onoclea sensibilis, photographed by Skyler Principe
fig. e Skyler Principe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205051944
Onoclea sensibilis, photographed by Zakqary Roy
fig. f Zakqary Roy, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204957052
Onoclea sensibilis, photographed by Mary Krieger
fig. g Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205031724
Onoclea sensibilis, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. h Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 203966158

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 19 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.

  • Angiopteris sensibilis (L.) Nieuwl.
  • Calypterium sensibile (L.) Bernh.
  • Onoclea asiatica Ching & P.S.Chiu
  • Onoclea augescens Link
  • Onoclea interrupta (Maxim.) Ching & Chiu
  • Onoclea obtusilobata Schkuhr
  • Onoclea obtusilobata unranked hemiphyllodes Kiss & Kümmerle
  • Onoclea sensibilis f. acutisegmenta Gruber
  • Onoclea sensibilis f. hemiphyllodes (Kiss & Kümmerle) Weath.
  • Onoclea sensibilis f. obtusilobata (Schkuhr) Gilbert
  • Onoclea sensibilis f. sensibilis
  • Onoclea sensibilis f. ventroperaferens Neidorf
  • Onoclea sensibilis var. genuina Wherry
  • Onoclea sensibilis var. obtusilobata (Schkuhr) Torr.
  • Pterinodes sensibilis (L.) Kuntze
  • Ragiopteris obtusiloba C.Presl
  • Ragiopteris obtusilobata (Schkuhr) C.Presl
  • Ragiopteris onocleoides C.Presl
  • Riedlea sensibilis (L.) Mirb.

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.