Onychium cryptogrammoides

Carrot Fern Pteridaceae

A beautiful, finely textured fern forming a graceful clump of intricately divided, bright green fronds. The lamina is exceptionally finely dissected, giving the plant a soft, almost filmy appearance, while the bases of the stipes are characteristically black — a useful feature in distinguishing it from the superficially similar Onychium japonicum. In good conditions it makes a particularly elegant woodland fern, and the dense colonies it forms in the wild suggest that it is capable of making an excellent garden subject where happy. 

Its natural range extends from Pakistan and the western Himalaya through Nepal, Bhutan and northeastern India to Tibet and China, continuing eastwards through Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, with Vietnam also reported. It is principally a fern of temperate mountain habitats, occurring in open woodland, valleys and along stream banks, generally at 1200–3500 m in China. 

Christ described the species in 1909. It has a particularly tangled nomenclatural history: Onychium japonicum var. multisectum C.B.Clarke (1880) and O. multisectum are now treated as synonyms of O. cryptogrammoides. The species belongs to a polyploid complex whose taxonomy remains imperfectly resolved. 

• 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: Pakistan to China and Indo-China; Himalaya, Tibet, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos
• Altitude: approximately 1200–3500 m
• Nomenclature: Onychium cryptogrammoides Christ, 1909
• Synonyms: Onychium japonicum var. intermedium; O. japonicum var. multisectum; O. multisectum