Fishbone fern
Nephrolepis cordifolia (L.) C.Presl
- light
- Any light
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 61 cm
- wide
- 76 cm
Polypodiaceae
Also called Fishbone Fern, Sword fern, Tuber sword fern, Ladder fern, Tuberous Sword Fern
Formerly Aspidium cordifolium, Nephrodium cordifolium, Polypodium cordifolium
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Lithophyte or epiphyteKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- SubtropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- São Tomé, SW. Cameroon, W. Indian Ocean, Trop. & Subtrop. Asia to PacificKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Sun or shadeRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, not yet checked: its sources are splitTied: no reading has a majority of the 2 sources, so all are kept for a person to settle. Sources differ: NC State Extension full, part; Wikipedia shade
- Height
- 30 cm to 91 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 30 cm to 1.2 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Coldest it survives
- -12.2 °C (USDA zone 8a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: flowers, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Spanish
- helecho serrucho, Helecho rizado gigante
- Hawaiian
- kupukupu
- Japanese
- タマシダ, 玉羊歯
- Chinese
- 腎蕨, 石黃皮, 圓羊齒
- Chinese (China)
- 肾蕨
- Swedish
- fjäderbräken
- Russian
- Нефролепис сердцелистный
- Danish
- nyrebregne
- Polish
- nefrolepis sercolistny, nerczyłusk sercolistny
- Thai
- เฟิร์นใบมะขาม
- French
- Néphrolépide à feuilles cordées
- Italian
- Felce cordifolia
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-24, CC BY 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Nephrolepis cordifolia (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.