Actiniopteris radiata (Sw.) Link
Fan-Leaved Fern
Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Actiniopteris radiata (Sw.) Link: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (J.Koenig ex Sw.) Link.
55 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar, shaded
- Apr, shaded
- May
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- Aug
- Sep
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- Dec, shaded
Summary
Actiniopteris radiata (Actiniopteris = 'ray fern') is a widely distributed fern occurring throughout Africa and adjacent islands, Madagascar, Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Burma and Australia. It bears a close resemblance to Actiniopteris dimorpha Pic. Serm.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Actiniopteris radiata", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (527 mm of 705 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.5 °C against a yearly mean of 24.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: December to April.
Rain
705 mm in the median year at the habitat, 527 mm of it June to October. Wettest month August at 126 mm, driest months (2 at 8 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 506 mm to 1,241 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 873 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 705 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.5 °C, the absolute minimum 10.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 15.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 8.8 °C to 19.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 34.5 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -147 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, southern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 26 °C in Dec to 35 °C in May; mean nightly low from 15 °C in Jan and Dec to 23 °C in May and Jun. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 705 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 168 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 10.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 27 / 22–30 | 30 / 25–32 | 32 / 27–35 | 34 / 27–37 | 35 / 26–40 | 32 / 25–38 | 29 / 24–33 | 28 / 24–32 | 29 / 26–32 | 29 / 25–32 | 28 / 24–30 | 26 / 23–29 |
| Night °C | 15 / 9–19 | 17 / 11–20 | 19 / 15–22 | 21 / 18–25 | 23 / 18–26 | 23 / 18–27 | 22 / 17–26 | 22 / 17–24 | 21 / 17–24 | 20 / 17–22 | 17 / 14–21 | 15 / 10–20 |
| Rain mm | 8 / 2–53 | 8 / 1–36 | 18 / 3–92 | 39 / 3–171 | 58 / 9–128 | 68 / 10–167 | 120 / 18–294 | 126 / 26–267 | 122 / 21–199 | 91 / 15–230 | 36 / 7–219 | 11 / 2–102 |
| DLI | 34 / 29–39 | 39 / 34–42 | 42 / 40–44 | 43 / 37–47 | 42 / 36–48 | 35 / 29–42 | 30 / 25–37 | 30 / 24–39 | 34 / 30–41 | 34 / 31–41 | 31 / 28–39 | 31 / 27–38 |
| RH % | 53 / 46–61 | 50 / 42–58 | 49 / 39–58 | 52 / 37–63 | 54 / 40–63 | 57 / 48–67 | 61 / 54–69 | 63 / 55–69 | 61 / 52–67 | 58 / 45–65 | 55 / 44–66 | 55 / 47–64 |
Records on both sides of the equator: the 76 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 168 cells that remain: the 128 at least 10° north and the 40 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) rajesh rocky, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) nirjesh gautam, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) migsgreenworld, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Gardenia latifolia Indian Boxwood Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya
Senna surattensis Glossy shower Photo: CC0, author not stated Huberantha cerasoides Annonaceae 
Jasminum auriculatum Indian hasmine Photo: CC0, author not stated
Ceropegia juncea Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Manidip Mandal
Echeveria laui Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, JFKComOther Actiniopteris 3 in the reference
Actiniopteris australis Pteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Augustin Soulard
Actiniopteris dimorpha Pteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Androstachys
Actiniopteris semiflabellata Pteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Julien Renoult Names & registers
Also known as Acropteris dichotoma; Acropteris radiata; Acrostichum australe; Acrostichum dichotomum; Acrostichum radiatum and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)
Under another author Actiniopteris australis Ettingsh. is an older name of this species, not Actiniopteris australis, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF's key 4205838 is Actiniopteris radiata (J.Koenig ex Sw.) Link; the page links Kew's Actiniopteris radiata (Sw.) Link, and the name is cited as Kew cites itgbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21climate answeredasked 2026-10-21climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -0.50_37.500, lapse-corrected -147 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 49 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.