*Dryopteris erythrosora (D.C. Eaton) Kuntze. Autumn Fern, Japanese Red Shieldfern. Hab: Suburban woodlands, especially in ravines and along creeks. Dist: Native of Japan, Korea, and China. Also recently reported as naturalizing in AR (Simpson, Crank, Witsell, & Peck 2008; Peck 2011), nc. NC (Rothfels, Sigel, & Windham 2012), and c. GA (Zomlefer et al. 2018; Umstead & Diggs 2018). This species seems to be well on its way to being an aggressive invasive, likely to be widespread in our area; see discussion in Wyatt (2020).
Origin/Endemic status: E. and se. Asia
Other Comments: "Two factors suggest [Dryopyeris erythrosora] might have tremendous potential [for spread in the future]. First, it is wildly popular as an ornamental planting and undoubtedly hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of plants will be installed in landscapes all over Georgia and the Southeast. Second, this species is hardy over most of the United States" (Wyatt 2020).
Synonymy: = Ar, K3, K4, Umstead & Diggs (2018); = n/a – C, F, FNA2, RAB
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