The wood fern grows best in the low, shaded woodlands of the California coast.

The wood fern's fronds grow parallel to the ground to best catch the minimal sunlight that reaches the shade.

This patch of wood fern grew alongside the trail and up the face of a steep hillside.

The leaves of the wood fern unroll to form wide fans.

A detailed view of the wood fern's leaf. Notice what is termed "toothed leaflets."

The underside view of the leaf of the wood fern. Note the stem structure supporting the individual leafs. From this view it is clear that the apparent large fan-like leaves are really composed of many tiny individual leaves of [progressively smaller lengths as they grow further from the main stem.

Notice that the stems attempt to grow vertically. The weight of the leaves cause them to lay over to better catch the light.

The wood fern is also known as California wood fern, Shield Fern, coastal wood fern, coastal woodfern. The wood fern is native to California and is also found outside of California, but is confined to western North America. In the garden the wood fern is an excellent evergreen that is drought tolerant.