Lonchitis hirsutaL.

tomato fern

WFO wfo-0001109162 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 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.

Lonchitis hirsuta, photographed by Diego Inclan
fig. a Diego Inclan, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-04-29 / obs. 38074047
Lonchitis hirsuta, photographed by Diego Inclan
fig. b Diego Inclan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 38074062
Lonchitis hirsuta, photographed by Diego Inclan
fig. c Diego Inclan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 38074090
Lonchitis hirsuta, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. d Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 110544326
Lonchitis hirsuta, photographed by ritirene
fig. e ritirene, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169995771

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 25 botanical countries

Regions where Lonchitis hirsuta is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Southeast, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil SoutheastColombiaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPeruPuerto RicoSurinameVenezuela Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Lonchitis hirsuta, 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
Bolivia BOL SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Southeast BZL
Colombia CLM
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

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 54 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 15.9 °C 19.7 °C 22.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.8 °C 28.5 °C 30.3 °C
Annual rainfall 1,227 mm 2,069 mm 4,553 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 151 mm 266 mm 952 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 54 research-grade observations of Lonchitis hirsuta 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 13 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.

  • Anisosorus hirsutus (L.) Underw. & Maxon
  • Anisosorus laciniatus (Willd.) Trevis.
  • Antiosorus hirsutus Kuhn
  • Litobrochia hirsuta (L.) Paxton
  • Lonchitis hirsuta var. ghiesbreghtii Christ
  • Lonchitis zahlbruckneri Kümmerle
  • Pteris ghiesbreghtii J.Sm.
  • Pteris hirsuta (L.) J.Sm.
  • Pteris hirsuta var. ghiesbreghtii Christ
  • Pteris laciniata Willd.
  • Pteris laciniata var. setosa Davenp. ex Conz.
  • Pteris lonchitoides Desv.
  • Pteris villosa Sw.

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.