Myriopteris microphylla(Sw.) Grusz & Windham

southern lipfern

WFO wfo-0001337798 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 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.

Myriopteris microphylla, photographed by Dan Schofield
fig. a Dan Schofield, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-03-29 / obs. 185358466

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 Myriopteris microphylla is native: Florida, Georgia, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, Argentina Northwest, Bolivia, Cayman Is., Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Galápagos, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Windward Is. FloridaGeorgiaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMississippiArgentina NorthwestBoliviaColombiaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaPuerto RicoVenezuela Cayman Is.GalápagosLeeward Is.Netherlands AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Myriopteris microphylla, 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
Argentina Northwest AGW SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Puerto Rico PUE
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Georgia GEO
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI

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 94 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 5.5 °C 19.9 °C 24.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.8 °C 29.3 °C 32.8 °C
Annual rainfall 704 mm 1,188 mm 2,204 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 72 mm 123 mm 302 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 94 research-grade observations of Myriopteris microphylla 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 20 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.

  • Adiantum microphyllum Sw.
  • Adiantum microphyllum (Sw.) Hornem.
  • Adiantum microphyllum var. coriaceum T.Moore
  • Adiantum pubescens Poir.
  • Allosorus microphyllus (Sw.) Liebm.
  • Allosorus microphyllus var. elongata Farw.
  • Cassebeera microphylla (Sw.) J.Sm.
  • Cheilanthes elongata Willd. ex Kaulf.
  • Cheilanthes heterotricha Andersson
  • Cheilanthes microphylla (Sw.) Sw.
  • Cheilanthes microphylla f. elongata (Willd.) Stehlé
  • Cheilanthes microphylla var. elongata (Willd.) Krug
  • Cheilanthes microphylla var. minor E.Fourn.
  • Cheilanthes pygmaea Klotzsch
  • Hemionitis microphylla (Sw.) Christenh.
  • Hemionitis nigricans (Willd.) Christenh.
  • Notholaena cheilanthoides Spreng.
  • Notholaena microphylla (Sw.) Keyserl.
  • Notholaena nigricans (Willd.) Desv.
  • Pteris nigricans Willd.

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 CHMI4. 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.