Nephrolepis brownii(Desv.) Hovenkamp & Miyam.

Asian swordfern

WFO wfo-0001276588 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Nephrolepis brownii, photographed by chiuluan
fig. a chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-07 / obs. 195684177

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
694710
Filed as
Nephrolepis brownii (Desv.) Hovenkamp & Miyam.
Det. by
J. Prado 2006-01-01
Collected
D. C. Daly 2003-05-09
Origin
BR
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 41 botanical countries

Regions where Nephrolepis brownii is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, Christmas I., India, Jawa, Laccadive Is., Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Thailand, Vietnam, Kermadec Is., Queensland, Cook Is., Fiji, Marianas, New Caledonia, Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tonga, Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Vanuatu China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanTaiwanAssamBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiThailandVietnamQueenslandFijiNew Caledonia Nansei-shotoAndaman Is.Christmas I.Laccadive Is.Nicobar Is.Kermadec Is.Cook Is.MarianasPitcairn Is.Society Is.TongaTuamotuTubuai Is.Vanuatu
Native distribution of Nephrolepis brownii, 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
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
Christmas I. XMS
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laccadive Is. LDV
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Cook Is. COO PACIFIC
Fiji FIJ
Marianas MRN
New Caledonia NWC
Pitcairn Is. PIT
Society Is. SCI
Tonga TON
Tuamotu TUA
Tubuai Is. TUB
Vanuatu VAN
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Kazan-retto KZN
Nansei-shoto NNS
Ogasawara-shoto OGA
Taiwan TAI
Kermadec Is. KER AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD

Not drawn on the map: Kazan-retto, Ogasawara-shoto. 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 1,453 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 11.9 °C 17.5 °C 23.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 20.9 °C 28.2 °C 31.2 °C
Annual rainfall 971 mm 2,293 mm 4,133 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 81 mm 260 mm 787 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 1,453 research-grade observations of Nephrolepis brownii 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 15 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.

  • Aspidium amoa Hook.
  • Aspidium floccigerum Blume
  • Aspidium haleakalense Mann
  • Aspidium schkuhrii Blume
  • Davallia multiflora Roxb.
  • Nephrodium brownii Desv.
  • Nephrodium regulare Desv.
  • Nephrolepis acutangula C.Presl
  • Nephrolepis floccigera (Blume) T.Moore
  • Nephrolepis mayi May
  • Nephrolepis multiflora (Roxb.) F.M.Jarrett ex C.V.Morton
  • Nephrolepis pubescens Copel.
  • Nephrolepis tomentosa Alderw.
  • Nephrolepis westonii Craig
  • Polypodium mayi May

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 NEMU. 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.