Diplazium esculentum(Retz.) Sw.

vegetable fern

WFO wfo-0001109577 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Diplazium esculentum, photographed by Presha Soogrim
fig. a Presha Soogrim, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-02 / obs. 194447368
Diplazium esculentum, photographed by chiuluan
fig. b chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 180768007
Diplazium esculentum, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. c Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173276260
Diplazium esculentum, photographed by Lsf
fig. d Lsf, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170835003
Diplazium esculentum, photographed by kbkash
fig. e kbkash, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170932349
Diplazium esculentum, photographed by Agnes Trekker
fig. f Agnes Trekker, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170388333
Diplazium esculentum, photographed by chen ying-hsiao
fig. g chen ying-hsiao, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 156825792
Diplazium esculentum, photographed by 葉子
fig. h 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 164533470

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
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
190488
Filed as
Diplazium esculentum (Retz.) Sw.
Det. by
C. R. Annable 1996-01-01
Collected
C. R. Annable 1996-02-15
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

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 Diplazium esculentum is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Tibet, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanTaiwanTibetAssamBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPakistanPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamWest HimalayaFiji Nansei-shotoAndaman Is.Nicobar Is.SamoaVanuatu
Native distribution of Diplazium esculentum, 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
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Fiji FIJ PACIFIC
Samoa SAM
Vanuatu VAN

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 1,074 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 8.4 °C 13.2 °C 21.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.4 °C 29.7 °C 31.8 °C
Annual rainfall 1,011 mm 2,857 mm 4,678 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 67 mm 167 mm 831 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 1,074 research-grade observations of Diplazium esculentum 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 43 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.

  • Anisogonium esculentum (Retz.) C.Presl
  • Anisogonium serampurense C.Presl
  • Anisogonium serrulatum C.Presl
  • Asplenium ambiguum Sw.
  • Asplenium bipinnatum Roxb.
  • Asplenium esculentum (Retz.) Wall.
  • Asplenium esculentum (Retz.) C.Presl
  • Asplenium malabaricum (Spreng.) Mett.
  • Asplenium manilense Spreng.
  • Asplenium moritzii Mett.
  • Asplenium proliferum Wall.
  • Asplenium puberulum Wall.
  • Asplenium pubescens Mett.
  • Asplenium serrulatum C.Presl
  • Asplenium umbrosum (Moritzi) Mett.
  • Asplenium vitiense Baker
  • Athyrium ambiguum (Sw.) Milde
  • Athyrium esculentum (Retz.) Copel.
  • Athyrium serrulatum Milde
  • Callipteris ambigua (Sw.) T.Moore
  • Callipteris esculenta (Retz.) J.Sm.
  • Callipteris esculenta var. pubescens (Link) Ching
  • Callipteris malabarica (Spreng.) J.Sm.
  • Callipteris serampurensis Fée

and 19 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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.