Onychium contiguum

Carrot Fern Pteridaceae

A beautifully fine-textured member of the Onychium group, forming medium-sized clumps of exquisitely divided, bright green fronds. The sterile fronds are particularly finely dissected, often four-pinnate or more, while the fertile fronds are longer-stalked and more upright, with the sori running continuously along the margins beneath the reflexed edges of the segments. The stipes are characteristically black at the base, becoming straw-coloured above.

A Himalayan fern of open rocky places, stream margins and mountain meadows, it occurs at roughly 1800–3000 m. Its reported range extends from Afghanistan and Pakistan through the Himalaya to Nepal, Bhutan and northeastern India, and eastwards through China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and mainland Southeast Asia. 

Its nomenclatural status is rather unsettled. Onychium contiguum was published by C.Hope in 1901, based on material attributed to Wallich. It has subsequently been included in the variable O. cryptogrammoides complex, with O. japonicum var. intermedium and O. japonicum var. multisecta also associated with the complex. 

• Hardiness: H5–H6, approximately -20 to -15°C
• Height: 40–80 cm
• Spread: 40–80 cm
• Foliage: Deciduous to semi-evergreen
• Position: Partial shade to shade
• Soil: Moist, humus-rich, well drained
• Range: Afghanistan and Pakistan through the Himalaya, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and mainland Southeast Asia
• Altitude: c. 1800–3000 m
• Nomenclature: Onychium contiguum Wall. ex C.Hope, 1901
• Taxonomic note: Currently unresolved in some databases and historically included within the O. cryptogrammoides complex