Asplenium myriophyllum (Sw.) C.Presl
Limestone spleenwort; Parsley fern
At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr, shaded
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov, shaded
- Dec
About the genus · Asplenium
Asplenium is a genus of about 700 species of ferns, often treated as the only genus in the family Aspleniaceae, though other authors consider Hymenasplenium separate, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences, a different chromosome count, and structural differences in the rhizomes. The type species for the genus is Asplenium marinum.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Asplenium", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a fern or moss, listed under the genus Asplenium in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,593 mm of 2,259 mm) falls in April to June and August to November. The temperature curve is flat, 1.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
2,259 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,593 mm of it April to June and August to November. Wettest month October at 254 mm, driest month January at 83 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,358 mm to 3,729 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,383 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,259 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: 28 to 35 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 43).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 8.3 °C, the absolute minimum -0.4 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 7.7 °C to 19.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.7 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 66 to 68% 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 -362 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.
Group. Listed under the genus Asplenium in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, southern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 21 °C in Jan and Dec to 23 °C in Aug and Sep; mean nightly low from 14 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar, Jul, Aug, Nov and Dec to 15 °C in Apr, May, Jun, Sep and Oct. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, around the first of the 7 months that tie for it. 2,259 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 72 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -0.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.6 °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 | 21 / 17–26 | 22 / 17–26 | 22 / 17–27 | 22 / 17–29 | 22 / 17–30 | 22 / 16–30 | 22 / 16–31 | 23 / 17–31 | 23 / 17–30 | 22 / 16–28 | 22 / 16–27 | 21 / 16–26 |
| Night °C | 14 / 8–19 | 14 / 8–20 | 14 / 8–20 | 15 / 9–21 | 15 / 9–22 | 15 / 9–23 | 14 / 8–24 | 14 / 8–24 | 15 / 8–24 | 15 / 9–23 | 14 / 8–21 | 14 / 8–20 |
| Rain mm | 83 / 37–239 | 105 / 42–255 | 162 / 39–330 | 216 / 54–431 | 253 / 101–405 | 234 / 102–398 | 197 / 75–405 | 201 / 74–427 | 235 / 124–395 | 254 / 128–406 | 200 / 63–327 | 119 / 46–267 |
| DLI | 30 / 25–35 | 32 / 28–35 | 35 / 27–39 | 32 / 25–43 | 31 / 25–42 | 30 / 24–41 | 32 / 26–43 | 34 / 29–41 | 34 / 27–38 | 31 / 27–35 | 28 / 25–34 | 28 / 24–33 |
| RH % | 67 / 61–72 | 66 / 60–72 | 66 / 59–72 | 68 / 59–73 | 68 / 62–73 | 68 / 64–73 | 67 / 62–73 | 66 / 62–71 | 68 / 63–72 | 68 / 64–73 | 68 / 64–74 | 67 / 62–73 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Toxicodendron striatum Western poison ivy Photo: CC BY, Eduardo Chacón Madrigal Anthurium salgarense Araceae
Erythrina rubrinervia Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, EstebanMH Ormosia tovarensis Fabaceae
Escobedia grandiflora Mountain saffron Photo: CC BY, David A. Rodríguez Arias
Furcraea cabuya Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel MesaOther Asplenium 84 in the reference
Asplenium adiantum-nigrum Black spleenwort Photo: CC BY, Nick Butcher
Asplenium adulterinum Corrupt spleenwort Photo: CC BY, Daniel Buczkiewicz
Asplenium aethiopicum Egyptian spleenwort Photo: CC BY, Em Lamond Asplenium africanum Aspleniaceae
Asplenium antiquum Bird’s-nest fern Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te Hsu
Asplenium appendiculatum Aspleniaceae Photo: CC BY, avocat
Asplenium aureum Golden Rustyback Fern Photo: CC BY, Mikel Etxeberria Okariz
Asplenium australasicum Bird's-nest fern Photo: CC0, author not stated
Asplenium bulbiferum Hen-and-chickens Photo: CC BY, 大澤風季 ohsawa_Fuki
Asplenium ceterach Rustyback Photo: CC0, author not stated
Asplenium cristatum Parsley spleenwort Photo: CC BY, Liliana Ramírez-Freire all 85 ›Names & registers
Also known as Asplenium bifissum; Asplenium cicutarium var. dissectum; Asplenium cicutarium var. monteverdense; Asplenium monteverdense; Asplenium monteverdense var. shermaniana and 15 more. (GBIF Backbone)
Under another author Asplenium rhizophyllum (Thunb.) Kunze is an older name of this species, not Asplenium rhizophyllum, 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.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 2026-10-21; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-21climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected -362 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21commons 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 57 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.