BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary
Polystichum californicum
California Sword-fern
| Scientific Name: | Polystichum californicum (D.C. Eat.) Diels | ||||||||||
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| English Name: | California Sword-fern | ||||||||||
| Classification / Taxonomy | |||||||||||
| Scientific Name - Concept Reference: | Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR. | ||||||||||
| Classification Level: | Species | ||||||||||
| Taxonomy Comments: | Previously considered falsely reported due to misidentification of poor specimen collected by W. B. Anderson in 1898. Specimen collected in 2008 has been verified by David H Wagner. |
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| Species Group: | Vascular Plant | ||||||||||
| Species Code: | POLYCAL | ||||||||||
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| Conservation Status / Legal Designation | |||||||||||
| Global Status: | G4 (Jan 2025) | ||||||||||
| Provincial Status: | S1 (Apr 2019) | ||||||||||
| BC List: | Red | ||||||||||
| Provincial FRPA list: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Wildlife Act: | |||||||||||
| COSEWIC Status: | Endangered (May 2023) | ||||||||||
| SARA Schedule: | |||||||||||
| General Status Canada: | 2 - May be at risk (2010) | ||||||||||
| Ecology & Life History | |||||||||||
| General Description: | |||||||||||
| Technical Description: | |||||||||||
| Similar Species: | |||||||||||
| Habitats: (Type / Subtype / Dependence) |
Rock/Sparsely Vegetated Rock / Cliff / Facultative - occasional use
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| Global Habitat Comments: | Polystichum californicum grows "on forest floor in southern part of range and in rock crevices at cliff bottoms (most commonly andesite) to north" at elevations ranging from 100 to 850 meters (FNA 1993). In California, it is found in woodlands and along streambanks to rocky open slopes (Jepson 2025). In Canada, it occurs exclusively on limestone cliffs (COSEWIC 2023). | ||||||||||
| Provincial Habitat Comments: | In rock crevice on the lower part of a coastal limestone outcrop exposed to salt spray. | ||||||||||
| Provincial Phenology: (1st half of month/ 2nd half of month) |
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| Elevation (m) (min / max): | Provincial: | ||||||||||
| Known Pests: | |||||||||||
| Pollen Vector: | |||||||||||
| Pollinator: | |||||||||||
| Dispersal: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Inventory | |||||||||||
| Inventory Priority: | |||||||||||
| Ownership of occurrences (Known locations): | |||||||||||
| Inventory Need: | |||||||||||
| Economic Attributes | |||||||||||
| Distribution | |||||||||||
| Endemic: | N | ||||||||||
| Global Range Comment: | Polystichum californicum occurs in western North America from southwestern British Columbia, Canada south in the United States to California where it is restricted to the Coast Ranges and Sierra-Cascade axis and most abundant in the North Coast Range north of San Francisco (FNA 2002). Range extent was estimated to be over 260,000 square kilometers using herbarium specimens, photo-based observations, and NatureServe Network occurrence data documented between 1994 and 2025 (GBIF 2025, iNaturalist 2025, NatureServe 2025, SEINet 2025). | ||||||||||
| Disjunct, more common elsewhere: | N | ||||||||||
| Peripheral, major distribution elsewhere: | N | ||||||||||
| Authors / Contributors | |||||||||||
| Global Information Author: | Soteropoulos (2025) | ||||||||||
| Last Updated: | Jan 27, 2025 | ||||||||||
| Provincial Information Author: | |||||||||||
| Last Updated: | |||||||||||
| Last Literature Search: | |||||||||||
| References and Related Literature | |||||||||||
COSEWIC. 2023. COSEWIC assessment and status report on the California Sword Fern Polystichum californicum in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Ottawa. x + 32 pp. Online. Available: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/species-risk-public-registry/cosewic-assessments-status-reports/california-sword-fern-2023.html (accessed 2025). |
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Flora of North America Editorial Committee (FNA). 1993a. Flora of North America north of Mexico. Vol. 2. Pteridophytes and gymnosperms. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. xvi + 475 pp. |
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Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2025. Jepson eFlora. Online. Available: https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/ (accessed 2025). |
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Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.
Suggested Citation:
B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 2025. Species Summary: Polystichum californicum. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 14, 2026).