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D. saxifraga resources
Flora
Flora of JapanFlora of Japan
Herbarium
inoperativeindex to 300 specimens (link inoperative)
Monograph
Hoshizaki and WilsonHoshizaki and Wilson
Photo
base of stipe, scalesbase of stipe, scales
habit, fertile frondhabit, fertile frond

All Ferns
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   Dryopteris
     aemula  affinis
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     clintoniana  crassirhizoma
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     marginalis  mindshelkensis
     oreades  pacifica
     polylepis  pseudo-filix-mas
     purpurella  remota
     sacrosancta  saxifraga
     sieboldii  stewartii
     sublacera  tokyoensis
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     wallichiana

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    Pleopeltis  Polypodium
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    Woodwardia
 
Dryopteris saxifraga H. Itô
Etymology Latin: saxum, a rock + frango, to break. Because it grows among the rocks, the thought might have been that it actually split the rocks when it grew.
Description Rhizome: erect, branching, giving rise to few fronds.
Frond: 40 cm high by 15 cm wide, evergreen, at least in warmer climates, persistent stipe bases, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 2:1.
Stipe: grooved, straw-colored, brown and thickened at the base, scales black-brown, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 2-pinnate pinnatifid at the base, quickly less above, ovate-triangular, dull, mixed scales on rachis, some hairlike, smaller ones bullate; costa scales smaller, very bullate.
Pinnae: 12 to 14 pair, subopposite; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae; margins sinuate, slightly turned under; veins embossed on the upper surface.
Sori: round, in 2 rows on the pinna, usually one per pinnule on the outer half, indusium: reniform, 1 mm, at a sinus, sporangia: brownish.
Culture Habitat: among rocks, moist cliffs in high mountains. Distribution: Japan, Manchuria, Korea, northeastern China. Hardy to -25°C, USDA Zone 5.
Synonyms
Polystichum varium (L.) C. Presl., misapplied
Dryopteris varia (L.) Kuntze var. saxifraga (H. Itô) H. Ohba
Dryopteris saxifraga
Dryopteris saxifraga.  Illustration from The Cultivated Species of the Fern Genus Dryopteris in the United States, Barbara Joe Hoshizaki and Kenneth A. Wilson, American Fern Journal, 89, 1, (1999), with permission.
Notes
Compare to D. bissetiana which it differs from in being a smaller plant, with shorter stipes, browner scales, pinnae closer spaced, and dull blades
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