Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations
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 69 botanical countries
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 927 observations
| Condition | 5th percentile | Median | 95th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldest month, mean daily low | 9.5 °C | 12.3 °C | 22.9 °C |
| Warmest month, mean daily high | 25.7 °C | 28.4 °C | 31.7 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 1,044 mm | 2,984 mm | 4,090 mm |
| Rainfall in the driest quarter | 59 mm | 147 mm | 501 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 927 research-grade observations of Microsorum punctatum 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 59 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.
- Acrostichum punctatum L.
- Aspidium microcarpon Blume
- Colysis irioides (Poir.) J.Sm.
- Drynaria irioides J.Sm.
- Drynaria obtusata Brack.
- Drynaria polycarpa Brack.
- Drynaria pulverulenta Brack.
- Microsorum irioides Fée
- Microsorum irregulare Link
- Microsorum neoguineense (Copel.) Copel.
- Microsorum polycarpon (Cav.) Tardieu
- Microsorum sessile (Kaulf. ex Kuntze) Fée
- Microsorum subirideum (Christ) Copel.
- Microsorum validum (Copel.) Ching
- Niphobolus polycarpus Spreng.
- Phymatodes irioides (Poir.) C.Presl
- Phymatodes lingulata (Sw.) C.Presl
- Phymatodes polycarpa C.Presl
- Phymatodes polycarpos (Cav. ex Sw.) C.Presl
- Phymatodes polycarpus (Cav.) C.Presl
- Phymatodes sessilis C.Presl
- Pleopeltis antrophyoides Alderw.
- Pleopeltis irioides (Poir.) T.Moore
- Pleopeltis longifolia T.Moore
and 35 more.
Sourcesevery claim on this page
- World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
- iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
- USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol MIPU19. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- 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.