Species · genus Microsorum · Polypodiaceae

Climbing Bird's Nest Fern

Microsorum punctatum (L.) Copel.

Also known as: Elkhorn Fern · Fishtail Fern · Fishtail Strap-fern · Strapleaf Fern

Growth habit

lithophyte or epiphyte

Native range

Andaman Is., Angola, Assam, Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Caroline Is., Central African Republic, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Christmas I., Comoros, DR Congo, East Himalaya, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Hainan, India, Ivory Coast, Jawa, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Liberia, Madagascar, Malaya, Maluku, Marianas, Marquesas, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Guinea, New South Wales, Nicobar Is., Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Philippines, Queensland, Rwanda, Réunion, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Society Is., Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Microsorum punctatum — reference photo — (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0

Cultivars of M. punctatum

The named forms growers keep — each with its own page, each honest about how much we know.

No named cultivars catalogued under M. punctatum yet. When growers document a stable, named form, it earns its own page here.

Guide

The species-level account. Cultivar pages build on this and say where they differ.

A wide-ranging fern

Microsorum punctatum is the plant known in gardens as the climbing bird's nest fern, a member of the Polypodiaceae family. It sits in the genus Microsorum and carries the accepted botanical name Microsorum punctatum (L.) Copel.

Source: Kew

Old World tropics native

This fern's native range stretches across the tropical and subtropical Old World through to the Pacific, taking in territory from Africa and Madagascar across South and Southeast Asia to islands such as Fiji, New Caledonia and the Marianas. In the wild it behaves as a lithophyte or epiphyte, rooting on rock or bark rather than in open soil, and it belongs to the wet tropical biome. It has also been recorded as introduced into Colombia, well outside its native range. Beyond ornamental use, it has served people as a medicine, a food, and in various environmental applications.

Source: Kew

Strap-like fronds

True to its common name, the climbing bird's nest fern carries the family Polypodiaceae's fern habit, distinct from the true bird's nest fern in growth form despite the shared name. Its long history of reclassification, reflected in over fifty recorded synonyms, points to a plant that botanists have described and redescribed many times across its very wide native distribution.

Source: Kew

Care recipe

The species record — the baseline every cultivar inherits unless it says otherwise.

Care notes are early — not yet verified

Light: ai:claude-opus-4-8
Water: ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 5-10d)
Humidity: ai:claude-opus-4-8
Soil: ai:claude-fable-5
Care: ai:claude-fable-5

Light

Bright, indirect

Water

≈ every 10 days

Humidity

High

Temperature

16–29 °C

Soil mix

Loose, bark-based epiphytic mix that stays airy

Propagation

Division of the creeping rhizome

Fertilizing

Dilute balanced feed monthly in the growing season

Growth rate

Moderate

Flowering

Non-flowering fern, reproduces by spores

ToxicityAuthoritative · species

Not yet documented

This is where toxicity lives — every cultivar of this species inherits it and none can override it.

Reference images

Every image credited. Licenses link to their deeds.

(c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0

Sources: ai:claude-opus-4-8 · ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 5-10d) · ai:claude-fable-5

Kept true by its growers

Every fact here carries its source. Grow Climbing Bird's Nest Fern yourself? What you’ve observed — how it drinks, how it holds its color, a name that’s off — and a clear photo of your plant are exactly what keep this page honest. Contributions are reviewed before anything changes.