shield fern


noun
  1. any of numerous ferns of the genera Dryopteris and Polystichum, having shield-shaped indusia.

Origin of shield fern

1
First recorded in 1805–15

Words Nearby shield fern

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use shield fern in a sentence

  • The noble fronds of the Dilated Shield-fern are still in fairly good order, and Ceterach in rocky chinks is in fullest beauty.

    Wood and Garden | Gertrude Jekyll
  • The plant bears a family likeness to the Crested shield fern, but its conspicuously marginal fruit-dots identify it at sight.

    How to Know the Ferns | Frances Theodora Parsons
  • This is a much larger and more showy plant than the Crested shield fern.

    How to Know the Ferns | Frances Theodora Parsons
  • The Fragrant shield fern thrives in a colder climate than that chosen by many of its kinsmen.

    How to Know the Ferns | Frances Theodora Parsons
  • The fronds of the Fragrant shield fern grow in a crown and the fertile ones fruit in great abundance.

    How to Know the Ferns | Frances Theodora Parsons

British Dictionary definitions for shield fern

shield fern

noun
  1. any temperate woodland fern of the genus Polystichum having shield-shaped flaps covering the spore-producing bodies: family Aspleniaceae

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012