Pelazoneuron kunthii(Desv.) A.R.Sm. & S.E.Fawc.

Kunth's maiden fern

WFO wfo-1000028324 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Pelazoneuron kunthii, photographed by Eli Dickerson
fig. a Eli Dickerson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-04-30 / obs. 193232614
Pelazoneuron kunthii, photographed by saltyhiker
fig. b saltyhiker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 182608260
Pelazoneuron kunthii, photographed by Douglas Goldman
fig. c Douglas Goldman, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 178020465
Pelazoneuron kunthii, photographed by Laura Clark
fig. d Laura Clark, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 137267837
Pelazoneuron kunthii, photographed by Alina Martin
fig. e Alina Martin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177517376
Pelazoneuron kunthii, photographed by Ben Machado
fig. f Ben Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112976961
Pelazoneuron kunthii, photographed by Ben Machado
fig. g Ben Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112969738
Pelazoneuron kunthii, photographed by Ben Machado
fig. h Ben Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112977008

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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Pelazoneuron kunthii is native: Burundi, Rwanda, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Galápagos, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Venezuela, Windward Is. BurundiRwandaAlabamaArkansasFloridaGeorgiaLouisianaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMississippiNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaTexasBelizeColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEl SalvadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPuerto RicoVenezuela BahamasBermudaCayman Is.GalápagosLeeward Is.Turks-Caicos Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Pelazoneuron kunthii, 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
Bahamas BAH SOUTHERN AMERICA
Belize BLZ
Bermuda BER
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
El Salvador ELS
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Puerto Rico PUE
Turks-Caicos Is. TCI
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Louisiana LOU
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI
North Carolina NCA
South Carolina SCA
Texas TEX
Burundi BUR AFRICA
Rwanda RWA

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 1,947 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 1.8 °C 10.3 °C 17.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 29.6 °C 31.5 °C 33.9 °C
Annual rainfall 1,188 mm 1,453 mm 1,767 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 135 mm 199 mm 360 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,947 research-grade observations of Pelazoneuron kunthii 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.

  • Christella burundensis Pic.Serm.
  • Christella normalis (C.Chr.) Holttum
  • Cyclosorus burundensis (Pic.Serm.) Mazumdar & R.Mukhop.
  • Cyclosorus kunthii (Desv.) Christenh.
  • Dryopteris normalis C.Chr.
  • Dryopteris normalis f. austro-brasiliensis Sehnem
  • Dryopteris rafinesquiana Riddell
  • Dryopteris saxatilis (R.P.St.John) M.Broun
  • Dryopteris unca (R.P.St.John) M.Broun
  • Filix-mas augescens var. normalis (C.Chr.) Farw.
  • Lastrea kunthii T.Moore
  • Lastrea normalis (C.Chr.) Copel.
  • Nephrodium kunthii Desv.
  • Nephrodium patens Jenman
  • Thelypteris burundensis (Pic.Serm.) Christenh.
  • Thelypteris kunthii (Desv.) C.V.Morton
  • Thelypteris macrorhizoma E.P.St.John
  • Thelypteris normalis (C.Chr.) Moxley
  • Thelypteris saxatilis R.P.St.John
  • Thelypteris unca R.P.St.John ex Small

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 THKU. 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.