English: Soft shield fern.
Name: Latin setiferum means with bristles.
Region: southern and western Europe, Ireland, southwestern Great Britain, western France and northwest Iberia; Scotland; Crimea, Turkey.
Habitat: mild winters and moist summers, but also occurs more locally north to northern; in the Mediterranean at high altitudes; in woodlands, often on steep slopes.
Use: ornamental; over 300 cultivars available.

BotanyFern; evergreen or semi-evergreen.
Leaves: stalks and most midribs are coated with attractive cinnamon-brown scales; bright green; 30 to 120 cm long; usually drooping downslope; typically four to ten fronds on a mature plan; soft-textured; bipinnate, single-pinnate on small, young plants; pinnae opposite on the stalk; pinnae are 4 to 14 cm long, with a large upward-pointing pinnule at the base, and the other pinnules decreasing in size toward the pinna tip; pinnules have softly bristly tips.
Sori: two rows on either side of the midrib of each pinnule and are covered by a centrally-attached, umbrella-like indusium with fringed edges.
Sores: light yellow.