| Family | Scientific Name | Common Name | Habitat | Distribution | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thelypteridaceae | Phegopteris connectilis | Northern Beech Fern | Moist cliffs where wet by spray from waterfalls (at medium elevations), also on high elevation cliffs wet by seepage and in spruce-fir forests, northward in cool ravines and on swamp borders. Most of the occurrences in NC are at waterfalls in the escarpment gorges of Transylvania, Macon, and Jackson counties, near Highlands. | A circumboreal species, at its southern limit in North America in Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Montana, and Oregon; disjunct southward in w. North Carolina and e. Tennessee, and in Colorado. |  (c) Cressler, Alan M. |
| Thelypteridaceae | Phegopteris decursivepinnata | Japanese Beech Fern | Vertical rock outcrops, moist slopes. | Native of e. and se. Asia. This species is naturalizing on sandstone cliffs, other outcrops, rocky banks at scattered locations around the Southeastern United States, and seems likely to become more common. See Florez-Parra & Keener (2016) for additional information. Reported for montane South Carolina by Samantha Tessel (pers.comm., 2025). |  (c) Cressler, Alan M. |
| Thelypteridaceae | Phegopteris excelsior | Tall Beech Fern | Moist forests. |  (c) Lacroix-Carignan, Étienne - CC0 | |
| Thelypteridaceae | Phegopteris hexagonoptera | Broad Beech Fern | Mesic to submesic hardwood forests. | Québec west to Ontario, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, south to Panhandle Florida and e. Texas. |  (c) Bradley, Keith |