The Christmas fern is gorgeous as they stay evergreen color all year. They remain lush and fresh-looking throughout the season. fertile fronds. Its lanceolate emerald fronds are divided and leathery with hardy, holly-like leaflets and edible silvery spring-time fiddleheads. It is especially abundant on well shaded, forested hill sides near streams. Aptly nicknamed, Polystichum acrostichoides, commonly called Christmas Fern, is a favorite evergreen fern everyone loves to place in patches throughout their gardens. Also, the larvae of the pyralid moth (Herperogramma aeglealis) can construct a variety of feeding shelters within the sterile fronds of the Christmas fern and consume its terminal frond leaflets (probably before they accumulate significant levels of their protective chemicals). Christmas fern is easily identified by the presence of a notch at the base of each leaflet (pinna), as it resembles the shape of a Christmas stocking. Christmas Fern fiddleheads are extremely photogenic!
of the plant remain green throughout the year and are thus available for use in decorations at Christmas time.