General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations.
Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts.
Description: Small herbaceous fern.
Dimensions: Fronds pendent, about 3-12 inches long. Spreads and forms small patches.
Growth Rate: Moderate.
Range:
Miami-Dade, Broward and Collier Counties; disjunct in Hernando, Citrus, Marion, Alachua and Levy counties; West Indies, Mexico, Central America and South America. In Broward County, known 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: Rockland hammocks.
Soils: Constantly moist limestone rock.
Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow in nutrient poor soils, but needs some organic content 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 to wet soils and is intolerant of long periods of drought.
Light Requirements: Light shade to moderate 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 with difficulty, and division (plantlets are sometimes formed on the ends of fronds).
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).
