Lygodium flexuosum(L.) Sw.

maidenhair creeper

WFO wfo-0001115286 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Lygodium flexuosum, photographed by Paulmathi Vinod
fig. a Paulmathi Vinod, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-11-27 / obs. 171160523
Lygodium flexuosum, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. b Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 170083709
Lygodium flexuosum, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. c Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 100056936
Lygodium flexuosum, photographed by Rejoice Gassah
fig. d Rejoice Gassah, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 76828520
Lygodium flexuosum, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. e Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 51181768
Lygodium flexuosum, photographed by Leonard Worthington
fig. f Leonard Worthington, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 52648278
Lygodium flexuosum, photographed by P Jeganathan
fig. g P Jeganathan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 46822063
Lygodium flexuosum, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. h Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 127172433

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 26 botanical countries

Regions where Lygodium flexuosum is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Nansei-shoto, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanAssamBangladeshCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSri LankaSulawesiThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNorthern TerritoryQueenslandWestern Australia Nansei-shotoAndaman Is.
Native distribution of Lygodium flexuosum, 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
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
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Nansei-shoto NNS
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD
Western Australia WAU

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 244 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 10.2 °C 14.1 °C 24.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 28.0 °C 30.0 °C 34.8 °C
Annual rainfall 1,284 mm 2,225 mm 3,309 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 13 mm 110 mm 518 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 244 research-grade observations of Lygodium flexuosum 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 27 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.

  • Hydroglossum elegans Steud.
  • Hydroglossum flexuosum (L.) Willd.
  • Hydroglossum pinnatifidum Willd.
  • Hydroglossum scandens (L.) Willd.
  • Hydroglossum semipinnatum Poir.
  • Lygodium altum (C.B.Clarke) Alderw.
  • Lygodium elegans Desv.
  • Lygodium flexuosum var. accidens R.C.Y.Chou
  • Lygodium flexuosum var. altum C.B.Clarke
  • Lygodium flexuosum var. setulosum Tardieu & C.Chr.
  • Lygodium maculatum Bory
  • Lygodium meyenianum C.Presl
  • Lygodium pilosum Desv.
  • Lygodium pinnatifidum Sw.
  • Lygodium polymorphum (Cav.) Kunth
  • Lygodium pubescens Wall.
  • Lygodium rottlerianum C.Presl
  • Lygodium scandens (L.) Sw.
  • Lygodium semibipinnatum R.Br.
  • Lygodium serrulatum Blume
  • Lygodium tenue C.Presl
  • Odontopteris scandens (L.) Bernh.
  • Ophioglossum flexuosum L.
  • Ophioglossum scandens L.

and 3 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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol LYFL7. public domain. 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.