Cheilanthes tenuifolia(Burm.f.) Sw.

WFO wfo-0001115235 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Cheilanthes tenuifolia, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. a Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-04-10 / obs. 187459270

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 2881204
Filed as
Cheilanthes tenuifolia (Burm.fil.) Sw.
Det. by
Fosberg, F. R.
Collected
M. Falanruw 1979-04-13
Origin
MP
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 36 botanical countries

Regions where Cheilanthes tenuifolia is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Northern Territory, Queensland, Caroline Is., Fiji, Marianas, Marquesas, New Caledonia, Samoa, Society Is., Tonga, Tubuai Is., Vanuatu China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanTaiwanAssamBangladeshBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNorthern TerritoryQueenslandFijiNew Caledonia Andaman Is.Caroline Is.MarianasMarquesasSamoaSociety Is.TongaTubuai Is.Vanuatu
Native distribution of Cheilanthes tenuifolia, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Fiji FIJ
Marianas MRN
Marquesas MRQ
New Caledonia NWC
Samoa SAM
Society Is. SCI
Tonga TON
Tubuai Is. TUB
Vanuatu VAN
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Taiwan TAI
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 194 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 9.6 °C 13.3 °C 21.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.6 °C 29.9 °C 36.6 °C
Annual rainfall 905 mm 2,099 mm 3,349 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 10 mm 106 mm 196 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 194 research-grade observations of Cheilanthes tenuifolia that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 30 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Adiantum cicutifolium Lam.
  • Adiantum tenuifolium (Burm.f.) Sw.
  • Adiantum varians Poir.
  • Allosorus depilatus Kuntze
  • Aspidium tenue Retz.
  • Cassebeera tenuifolia (Burm.f.) J.Sm.
  • Cheilanthes hispidula Kunze
  • Cheilanthes humilis (G.Forst.) P.S.Green
  • Cheilanthes micrantha Wall.
  • Cheilanthes moluccana Kunze
  • Cheilanthes rupestris Wall.
  • Cheilanthes sciadioides Domin
  • Cheilanthes semiglabra (Kunze) Fée
  • Cheilanthes shirleyana (Domin) H.Quirk & T.C.Chambers
  • Cheilanthes tenuifolia subsp. queenslandica Domin
  • Cheilanthes tenuifolia subsp. shirleyana Domin
  • Cheilosoria javensis Trevis.
  • Cheilosoria tenuifolia (Burm.f.) Trevis.
  • Gymnogramma microphylloides Ces.
  • Hemionitis tenuifolia (Burm.f.) Christenh.
  • Notholaena glabra Brack.
  • Notholaena hirsuta var. glabra Bonap.
  • Notholaena sciadioides (Domin) F.M.Bailey
  • Notholaena semiglabra Kunze

and 6 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.