Schizaea dichotoma(L.) Sm.

forked curlygrass fern

WFO wfo-0001107476 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Schizaea dichotoma, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. a Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-15 / obs. 197730501

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 37 botanical countries

Regions where Schizaea dichotoma is native: Hainan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, India, Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Solomon Is., Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, Kermadec Is., New South Wales, New Zealand North, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Caroline Is., Cook Is., Fiji, Marianas, Marquesas, New Caledonia, Niue, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Society Is., Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is. HainanTaiwanBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoIndiaMalayaMalukuMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.SulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamNew South WalesNew Zealand NorthNorthern TerritoryQueenslandWestern AustraliaFijiNew Caledonia Nansei-shotoAndaman Is.Nicobar Is.Kermadec Is.Caroline Is.Cook Is.MarianasMarquesasNiueSamoaSociety Is.TongaVanuatuWallis-Futuna Is.
Native distribution of Schizaea dichotoma, 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
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
India IND
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Cook Is. COO
Fiji FIJ
Marianas MRN
Marquesas MRQ
New Caledonia NWC
Niue NUE
Samoa SAM
Santa Cruz Is. SCZ
Society Is. SCI
Tonga TON
Vanuatu VAN
Wallis-Futuna Is. WAL
Kermadec Is. KER AUSTRALASIA
New South Wales NSW
New Zealand North NZN
Northern Territory NTA
Queensland QLD
Western Australia WAU
Hainan CHH ASIA-TEMPERATE
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI

Not drawn on the map: Santa Cruz Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is 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 583 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 5.8 °C 12.9 °C 23.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 20.2 °C 25.9 °C 32.1 °C
Annual rainfall 1,224 mm 1,712 mm 3,742 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 36 mm 293 mm 666 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 583 research-grade observations of Schizaea dichotoma 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 10 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 dichotomum L.
  • Lophidium dichotomum Maxon
  • Osmunda dichotoma Spreng.
  • Ripidium dichotomum Bernh.
  • Schizaea biroi Richter
  • Schizaea copelandica Richter
  • Schizaea cristata Willd.
  • Schizaea dichotoma var. forsteri (Spreng.) Domin
  • Schizaea forsteri Spreng.
  • Schizaea kikuzatonis M.Ogata

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 SCDID. 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.