General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations.
Ecological Restoration Notes: A rare epiphytic or terrestrial fern in hammocks and swamps. Requires constant moisture and high humidity.
Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts.
Description: Medium epiphytic or terrestrial herbaceous fern.
Dimensions: About 2-3 feet in height. About as broad as tall.
Growth Rate: Slow.
Range:
Miami-Dade County north to Broward and Lee counties; also collected once in Volusia County; West Indies, Central America and South America. Rare in northern Miami-Dade and Broward counties. In Broward County, know only from Fern Forest Nature Center.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Map of ZIP codes with habitat recommendations from the Monroe County Keys north to Martin and Charlotte counties.
Habitats: Moist to wet hammocks and swamps.
Soils: Epiphytic, or terrestrial in moist, well-drained humusy leaf litter, acid to neutral pH.
Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow on nutrient poor substrate, but needs some nutrient inputs to thrive.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate flooding by salt or brackish water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Low; salt wind may burn the leaves.
Drought Tolerance: Low; requires moist substrate and high humidity and is intolerant of long periods of drought.
Light Requirements: Light shade.
Flower Color: N/A.
Flower Characteristics: There are no flowers; the plants reproduce by spores.
Flowering Season: All year.
Fruit: Inconspicuous spores.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from spores.
Comments: It is listed as endangered by the state of Florida. See also Florida Natural Areas Inventory's
Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Florida page (Chafin 2000).
