Autumn Fern

The autumn fern, also known as the Japanese shield fern, is a semi-evergreen fern of the wood fern family Dryopteridaceae, native to China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands. Its fronds, thirty to seventy centimeters tall, emerge coppery red before turning green, giving the plant an autumnal color even in spring. It grows best in moist, humus-rich soil with a near-neutral pH and tolerates drier ground better than many ferns. Prized as a garden ornamental for its changing frond color, both the species and its cultivar Brilliance have received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.