Woodland Poppy Pteridophyllum racemosum is in fact from the buttercup family (Poppy) and is not deer fern…. really! Hailing from the mountainous forests of Northern Japan it produces fern like foliage and then spikes of clean white flowers on thin stems in summer. Best in humus rich, well draining (remember it is from Mountainous Japan), cool shade. All efforts should be made to enrich the soil, as in rotted pine needle duff and the like. Although said to be evergreen, it does tend to lose some leaves in fall and produces new leaves in spring. Hardy to zone 5. Photo: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.