Flora of North America species comparison

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Nephrolepis cordifolia

Boston fern, narrow swordfern, sword fern, tuber ladder fern, tuber sword fern, tuberous sword fern
Stem

scales spreading, concolored.
Leaves

2.5–10.7 × 0.3–0.7 dm.
Petiole

0.3–2 dm, moderately to densely scaly;

scales spreading, pale brown throughout.
Blade

lacking scales, glabrous (rarely with a few branched hairs abaxially).
Indusia

reniform to lunate or deltate-rounded, attached along broad sinus, 1.1–1.7 mm wide.
Tubers

present or absent.
Rachis

2.2–9 dm, points of pinna attachment 5–12 mm apart;

scales moderately spaced to dense, pale to dark brown, point of attachment distinctly darker.
Central

pinnae oblong to lanceolate-oblong, straight to slightly falcate, 0.9–5 × 0.4–0.9 cm, base auriculate-cordate, acroscopically overlapping rachis, acroscopic lobe deltate, margins entire to serrulate to smoothly crenate, apex acute to bluntly rounded;

costae adaxially glabrous.
2n

= 82.

Nephrolepis cordifolia
Habitat Terrestrial or epiphytic in wet, shady places, limestone ledges, cliffs, rock, roadsides, and often old homesites or waste places, widely escaped from cultivation and only questionably native to any particular region
Elevation 0 m [0 ft]
Distribution
from FNA
FL; HI; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Africa; se Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Dryopteridaceae > Nephrolepis
Sibling taxa
N. biserrata, N. exaltata, N. multiflora, N. ×averyi
Synonyms Polypodium cordifolium, Aspidium cordifolium
Name authority (Linnaeus) C. Presl: Tent. Pterid. 79. (1836)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

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