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iNat·165682SpeciesPlantae5,093 field observations
  1. Plants
  2. ›Vascular Plants
  3. ›Ferns
  4. ›Leptosporangiate Ferns
  5. ›Polypod Ferns
  6. ›eupolypods I
  7. ›sword fern family
  8. ›Nephrolepis
Broad Sword Fern
Plate 1 of 2. (c) Benjamin Schwartz, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Benjamin Schwartz · via iNaturalist

Broad Sword Fern

Nephrolepis biserrata

Nephrolepis biserrata (giant swordfern, 长叶肾蕨) is a tropical fern, native to Florida, Mexico, the West Indies, Central America, South America, Africa, and southeast Asia.

Its stipes are grayish brown and 10–50 cm × about 4 mm in size, with brownish-green, papery lamina that are 14–30 cm wide × 0.7–2 m in length, but has occasionally attained a length of twenty-seven feet (eight meters). This is the largest of all the sword ferns and it often is labeled Macho Fern at nurseries. after its aggressive growth nature when compared to ferns such as the Boston Sword Fern, Nephrolepis exaltata that is planted more commonly.

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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Every page naming Nephrolepis biserrata in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 165682.