Christmas fern
Christmas fern noun: an evergreen fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) of eastern North America.
Noun
Christmas fern (plural Christmas ferns)
- An evergreen fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) of eastern North America.
- Our well-known Aspidium acrostichoides, so available for winter decorations, is happily christened Cʜʀɪsᴛᴍᴀs Fᴇʀɴ – a name which I certainly hope will be generally adopted.1873, D. C. Eaton, edited by John Torrey, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, volume IV, page 19
- In reference to Dryopteris acrostichoides, it may be of interest to note the origin of the best known common name. The name christmas fern appears to have been thus applied for a comparatively short time.1899, W. R. Maxon, Fern Bulletin: A Quarterly Devoted to Ferns, volume VII, page 15
Forms of Christmas fern
| plural | Christmas ferns |
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Origin of Christmas fern
Coined by American botanist John Robinson in 1873. Polystichum acrostichoides had already become a common ornamental plant in the northeastern United States, with its fronds remaining green through Christmas in late December.
Questions about Christmas fern
- What does Christmas fern mean?
- Christmas fern means an evergreen fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) of eastern North America.
- What part of speech is Christmas fern?
- Christmas fern is a noun.
- What is the plural of Christmas fern?
- The plural of Christmas fern is Christmas ferns.
Words near Christmas fern in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Christmas fern (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “Christmas fern.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/christmas_fern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.