Etymology Latin: saxum, a rock + frango, to break. Because it grows among the rocks, the thought might have been that it actually split the rocks when it grew.

Description Rhizome: erect, branching, giving rise to few fronds.
Frond: 40 cm high by 15 cm wide, evergreen, at least in warmer climates, persistent stipe bases, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 2:1.
Stipe: grooved, straw-colored, brown and thickened at the base, scales black-brown, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 2-pinnate pinnatifid at the base, quickly less above, ovate-triangular, dull, mixed scales on rachis, some hairlike, smaller ones bullate; costa scales smaller, very bullate.
Pinnae: 12 to 14 pair, subopposite; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae; margins sinuate, slightly turned under; veins embossed on the upper surface.
Sori: round, in 2 rows on the pinna, usually one per pinnule on the outer half, indusium: reniform, 1 mm, at a sinus, sporangia: brownish.

Culture Habitat: among rocks, moist cliffs in high mountains. Distribution: Japan, Manchuria, Korea, northeastern China. Hardy to -25°C, USDA Zone 5.

Synonyms
Polystichum varium (L.) C. Presl., misapplied
Dryopteris varia (L.) Kuntze var. saxifraga (H. Itô) H. Ohba