Western Sword Fern
Polystichum munitum
A large, lush evergreen fern with arching, dark green fronds, an easy groundcover or lawn alternative for shade, and deer and rabbits leave it alone. It adapts to many soils, even clay, if it gets regular water. Keep it out of full sun, which burns the fronds, and protect the crown from winter wet.
- Mature size
- 3.5 × 3 ft
- 1.1 × 0.9 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 5a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to full shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
Western Sword Fern at its mature size
A mature Western Sword Fern grows 2 to 6 feet tall and 2 to 4 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, Calscape.
Through the year
What Western Sword Fern looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Stiff glossy dark green sword-shaped fronds.
Photos
_(4-3-08)_coon_creek_-1_(2385892077).jpg){kind=link}
Growing Western Sword Fern
- Grows well in
- The Pacific Northwest and California.
- Good for
- Shade garden
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Pacific Northwest and California
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Western Sword Fern, that’s about 3 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Western Sword Fern in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other ferns
Christmas Fern
Japanese Holly Fern
Western Sword Fern
Ostrich FernAll drawn to the same scale.