Haplopteris ensiformis(Sw.) E.H.Crane

tape fern

WFO wfo-0001241527 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, 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.

Haplopteris ensiformis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. a Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-09-28 / obs. 162142200
Haplopteris ensiformis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. b Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 162142266
Haplopteris ensiformis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. c Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 162142314

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.

Native range 38 botanical countries

Regions where Haplopteris ensiformis is native: Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, China South-Central, Hainan, Kazan-retto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, Northern Territory, Queensland, Caroline Is., Easter Is., Marianas, Marquesas, Marshall Is., Samoa, Tonga, Tubuai Is., Vanuatu MadagascarTanzaniaZimbabweChina South-CentralHainanTaiwanBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.SulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamNorthern TerritoryQueensland MauritiusRéunionSeychellesCaroline Is.MarianasMarquesasMarshall Is.SamoaTongaTubuai Is.Vanuatu
Native distribution of Haplopteris ensiformis, 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
Bismarck Archipelago BIS ASIA-TROPICAL
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Easter Is. EAS
Marianas MRN
Marquesas MRQ
Marshall Is. MRS
Samoa SAM
Tonga TON
Tubuai Is. TUB
Vanuatu VAN
Madagascar MDG AFRICA
Mauritius MAU
Réunion REU
Seychelles SEY
Tanzania TAN
Zimbabwe ZIM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
Hainan CHH
Kazan-retto KZN
Ogasawara-shoto OGA
Taiwan TAI
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD

Not drawn on the map: Kazan-retto, Ogasawara-shoto, Easter Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are listed rather than guessed at.

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 66 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 9.7 °C 21.7 °C 25.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.1 °C 28.7 °C 30.7 °C
Annual rainfall 1,691 mm 2,485 mm 3,979 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 97 mm 344 mm 545 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 66 research-grade observations of Haplopteris ensiformis 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 10 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.

  • Oetosis ensiformis Greene
  • Vittaria bensei Alderw.
  • Vittaria elongata var. ensiformis (Sw.) C.Chr.
  • Vittaria ensifolia Blume
  • Vittaria ensiformis Sw.
  • Vittaria ensiformis var. latifolia Holttum
  • Vittaria incurvata Cav.
  • Vittaria montana Manickam
  • Vittaria plantaginea Bory
  • Vittaria sessilis Copel.

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.