Nephrolepis rivularis(Vahl) Mett. ex Krug

streamside swordfern

WFO wfo-0001114195 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

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.

Nephrolepis rivularis, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. a B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-07-18 / obs. 45377180
Nephrolepis rivularis, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. b Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 16217396
Nephrolepis rivularis, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. c Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 24276868
Nephrolepis rivularis, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. d Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 16217378
Nephrolepis rivularis, photographed by Elliot Greiner
fig. e Elliot Greiner, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181580713
Nephrolepis rivularis, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. f B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 45377205
Nephrolepis rivularis, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. g Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 67055360
Nephrolepis rivularis, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. h Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 67055404

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 28 botanical countries

Regions where Nephrolepis rivularis is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. Mexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Nephrolepis rivularis, 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 Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
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 46 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 14.9 °C 20.0 °C 22.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.7 °C 27.6 °C 30.7 °C
Annual rainfall 1,394 mm 2,337 mm 3,116 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 128 mm 270 mm 508 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 46 research-grade observations of Nephrolepis rivularis 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 12 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 eminens Wikstr.
  • Aspidium sesquipedale Willd.
  • Lepidoneuron sesquipedale (Willd.) Fée
  • Nephrodium crenatum Desv.
  • Nephrolepis crenata Fée
  • Nephrolepis exaltata var. rivularis Hieron.
  • Nephrolepis hirsutula var. sesquipedalis Kuntze
  • Nephrolepis intermedia Fée
  • Nephrolepis rivularis var. dominicensis Domin
  • Nephrolepis sesquipedalis C.Presl
  • Nephrolepis valida Kunze
  • Polypodium rivulare Vahl

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.