Landscape Uses:
	Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also an accent groundcover.
Ecological Restoration Notes:
	It can be used as one of many understory herbs in pine rocklands.
Availability:
	Grown by enthusiasts.
Description:
	Small herbaceous fern.
Height:
	About 6-12 inches in height. Forming small clumps about as broad as tall or broader.
Growth Rate:
	Slow.
Range:
	Monroe County Keys north to Martin and Collier counties; disjunct in Hernando, Citrus and Levy county; West Indies, southern Mexico, Central America and South America. Rare north of the Miami River. In Broward County, known only from Fern Forest Nature Center, Hillsboro Pineland Natural Area and Pond Apple Slough; in Palm Beach County, known only from Loxahatchee Slough Natural Area; it is presumed extirpated in Martin County. In the Monroe County Keys, disjunct from Miami-Dade County to the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key and nearby islands. Also collected in Key West in the mid 1800s.
Habitats:
	Pine rocklands and edges of sinkholes.
Soils:
	Moist, well-drained limestone soils, with or without humusy top layer.
Nutritional Requirements:
	Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.
Salt Water Tolerance:
	Low; does not tolerate long-term flooding by salt or brackish water.
Salt Wind Tolerance:
	Moderate; grows near salt water, but is protected from direct salt spray by other vegetation.
Drought Tolerance:
	High; does not require any supplemental water once established.
Light Requirements:
	Full sun to light shade.
Flower Color:
	N/A.
Flower Characteristics:
	There are no flowers; the plants reproduce by spores.
Flowering Season:
	All year.
Fruit:
	Inconspicuous spores.
Wildlife and Ecology:
Horticultural Notes:
	Can be grown from spores.
Comments:
	Difficult to grow but worth the effort.