Dryopteridaceae
Arachniodes
Holly ferns, so called for the stiff, glossy, toothed leaflets. Comparatively tough as indoor ferns go and hardy outdoors in much of the temperate world. Worth one note on the family: Kew places the genus in a broadly drawn Polypodiaceae, while IPNI, the standard fern classification and the regional floras all say Dryopteridaceae — this record follows the latter, which is what a reader will meet everywhere else.
Native to East Asia — China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Tibet
How Arachniodes generally wants to be treated
Species pages start from this and record only where they differ.
- Light
- Shade to dappled shade. A north window, or well back from a brighter one. Direct sun bleaches the fronds.
- Water
- Evenly moist, never waterlogged and never bone dry. Ferns have no mechanism for recovering from a dried-out rootball the way a succulent does.
- Humidity
- Moderate to high, though this genus copes with ordinary room air better than most ferns. The general fern guidance is a 30% floor with 40-50% as the target.
- Temperature
- Ordinary room temperatures. It is hardy outdoors — the published zone tags disagree, running from 6a to 10 across three sources, which is a wider spread than any of them admits.
- Substrate
- A humus-rich, free-draining mix. It grows in woodland leaf litter, not bog.
- Fertilizer
- A balanced feed at half strength through the growing season, sparingly. Ferns burn easily.
- Propagation
- Division of the rhizome, which is documented for the genus. Raising from spores is documented for ferns in general but not for this genus in particular, which is worth knowing before you conclude you are doing it wrong.
- Dormancy
- None indoors. Outdoors it is semi-evergreen and slows through winter.
- Common problems
-
- Crisp brown frond edges from dry air or from a rootball that dried out
- Scorch in direct sun
- Scale, mealybugs and aphids — though the species record says no serious pests, which contradicts the genus record on the same site
- Root rot in a mix that stays saturated
- New fronds emerging small or distorted usually means it is hungry or pot-bound
In the collection
- East Indian holly fern Arachniodes simplicior (Makino) Ohwi