| Scientific Name: | Athyrium niponicum var. pictum |
| Common Name: | Japanese painted fern |
| Family Name: | Athyriaceae |
| Origin: | S.E. Asia / Japan / China, South Asia / India |
| Hardiness Zone: | Zone 4: (-34 to -29 °C) |
| Plant Type: | Fern |
| Mature Size: | 0.4 - 0.7m x 0.3 - 0.6m (height x width) |
| Habit: | Arching, Spreading, Upright |
| Form: | Vase |
| Texture: | Medium |
| Landscape Uses: | Accent plant, Alpine, Container planting, Cut flower or foliage, Ground cover, Group or mass planting, Mixed shrub border, Small garden/space, Specimen plant, Summer interest, Waterside planting, Woodland margin |
| Exposure: | Part sun/part shade, Filtered shade, Deep shade |
| Soil or Media: | Humus rich, Well-drained |
| Leaves: | Compound, Fern-like, Basal, Soft flexible, Glabrous, Bipinnate, Tripinnate, Lanceolate, Oblong, Pinnately lobed |
| Flowers: | |
| Fruit: | Sporangium (spores), Brown, Aug-Sep |
| Key ID Features: | |
| Fronds triangular-shaped, 30-50cm long, delicate, deciduous, rachis dark red to purplish with alternating pinnae, pinnules with cream and silver metallic variegation that become greener in summer; sporangia with "hinged" indusia cover undersides in summer. | |