Japanese Holly Fern

The Japanese holly fern, also called the house holly-fern, is an evergreen fern native to eastern Asia, in the wood fern family Dryopteridaceae. Its leathery, shiny bright green fronds grow to more than half a meter long and are made up of six to ten pairs of broad, holly-like leaflets with a netlike vein pattern. In the wild it roots in crevices of coastal cliffs, stream banks and other moist, stable rocky ground. It is widely grown as an ornamental and houseplant in temperate climates, has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, and has become an invasive weed in parts of Australia where it has escaped cultivation.