Varia means differing or diverse. Originally varia encompassed bissetiana, pacifica, sacrosancta and saxifraga . Some say it should be split further
Rhizome: erect, stout, bearing several fronds in a tuft, lanceolate scales abundant, dark brown, to 20 mm.
Frond: 70 cm high by 25 cm wide, evergreen, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 4:3.
Stipe: straw-colored, sometimes tinted brownish in lower portion , grooved, densely scaly throughout; scales linear to lanceolate, to 25 mm long, reddish brown, to blackish brown, shining, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 2-pinnate-pinnatifid at base, pentagonally broadly ovate, papery, shining, bullate scales on costae below, absent above.
Pinnae: 15 to 20 pair, anadromic lowest pair, catadromic above; pinnules first basiscopic pinnule of basal pinnae very long; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae; margins weakly serrate, slightly turned under; veins free, forked.
Sori: round, large, medial, indusium: reniform, at a sinus, sporangia: brownish.
Habitat: lowlands in warmer regions, forest floor in lowlands, often in coastal areas.
Distribution: Japan, Korea, China, India, Thailand, Indochina, Taiwan and the Philippines.
Hardy to -25°C, USDA Zone 5.
Polypodium varium L.
Dryopteris yabei Hayata
Polystichum varium (L.) Presl
Aspidium varium Sw.
Lastrea varia Moore
Nephrodium varium Presl
Illustration from The Cultivated Species of the Fern Genus Dryopteris in the United States, Barbara Joe Hoshizaki and Kenneth A. Wilson, American Fern Journal, 89, 1, (1999), with permission.