Stenochlaena tenuifolia(Desv.) T.Moore

giant vine fern

WFO wfo-0001107879 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Stenochlaena tenuifolia, photographed by Margaret Burger
fig. a Margaret Burger, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-05-01 / obs. 126039047
Stenochlaena tenuifolia, photographed by Rafael Medina
fig. b Rafael Medina, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 2068112
Stenochlaena tenuifolia, photographed by Christoph Moning
fig. c Christoph Moning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 59797048
Stenochlaena tenuifolia, photographed by Jean-Paul Boerekamps
fig. d Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0 1.0 / obs. 199930122
Stenochlaena tenuifolia, photographed by Claire Herzog
fig. e Claire Herzog, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176590422
Stenochlaena tenuifolia, photographed by Claire Herzog
fig. f Claire Herzog, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 116427358
Stenochlaena tenuifolia, photographed by Shaun Swanepoel
fig. g Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 105891726
Stenochlaena tenuifolia, photographed by Shaun Swanepoel
fig. h Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 105412198

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 15 botanical countries

Regions where Stenochlaena tenuifolia is native: Angola, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Comoros, DR Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe AngolaCameroonCape ProvincesDR CongoGabonGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMozambiqueNorthern ProvincesTanzaniaUgandaZimbabwe Comoros
Native distribution of Stenochlaena tenuifolia, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Comoros COM
DR Congo ZAI
Gabon GAB
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique MOZ
Northern Provinces TVL
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zimbabwe ZIM

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.

Also published as 13 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 meyerianum (Kunze) Hook.
  • Acrostichum tenuifolium (Desv.) Baker
  • Lomaria grandis Bojer
  • Lomaria meyeriana Kunze
  • Lomaria tenuifolia Desv.
  • Lomariobotrys meyeriana (Kunze) Fée
  • Lomariobotrys tenuifolia (Desv.) Fée
  • Lomariopsis tenuifolia (Desv.) Christ
  • Polybotrya meyeriana (Kunze) Mett.
  • Polybotrya tenuifolia (Desv.) Kuhn
  • Stenochlaena madagascarica var. cuneata C.Chr.
  • Stenochlaena meyeriana (Kunze) C.Presl
  • Stenochlaena mildbraedii Brause

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.