Species
+

Asplenium nidus L.

Bird's-nest or Crow's-nest fern (EN), Hawai'I Birdnest Fern, Katafa, bird's-nest fern

Climate known 56 photographs Fern or moss
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Asplenium nidus is an epiphytic species of fern in the family Aspleniaceae, native to tropical southeastern Asia, eastern Australia, Hawaii, Polynesia, Christmas Island, India, and eastern Africa. It is known by the common names bird's-nest fern or simply nest fern.

Text from Wikipedia, “Asplenium nidus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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.

Text from Wikipedia, “Asplenium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Aspleniaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is. +11
Wild records
586 in range· 355 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2888mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 317 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a fern or moss by the genus Asplenium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to May at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2888 mm a year, wettest January at 317 mm, driest July at 180 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 19.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Asplenium ellipticum (Fée) Copel.; Asplenium ficifolium Goldm.; Asplenium nidus var. nidus; Asplenium nidus var. plicatum Alderw.; Asplenium scolopendrium Lour. and 15 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a fern or moss by the genus Asplenium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to May at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (2142 mm of 2888 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 1.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2888 mm a year, wettest January at 317 mm, driest July at 180 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2888 mm a year at the habitat, 2142 mm of it October to May. Wettest month January at 317 mm, driest July at 180 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1780 mm to 4269 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 19.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 19.8 °C, the absolute minimum 17.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 14.8 °C to 25.3 °C), warmest day 28.0 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a fern or moss, 5 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 66 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 22 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2888 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 421 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 30–35RH 66–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 421 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 24–3028 / 24–3028 / 24–3028 / 24–3128 / 23–3027 / 22–3027 / 21–3027 / 22–3027 / 23–3028 / 24–3028 / 24–3028 / 24–29
Night °C23 / 18–2623 / 18–2623 / 18–2623 / 18–2623 / 17–2623 / 16–2622 / 15–2522 / 15–2522 / 16–2523 / 17–2523 / 18–2623 / 18–26
Rain mm317 / 119–534289 / 100–523300 / 100–476262 / 98–416220 / 100–347182 / 60–354180 / 47–398180 / 36–350204 / 34–346236 / 51–372244 / 110–396274 / 154–432
DLI32 / 27–3834 / 29–3734 / 30–3833 / 29–3931 / 26–3630 / 24–3430 / 24–3433 / 28–3635 / 30–3934 / 30–4332 / 27–4331 / 26–41
RH %68 / 64–7368 / 64–7368 / 64–7268 / 64–7267 / 64–7266 / 63–7166 / 63–7266 / 62–7166 / 62–7166 / 63–7168 / 64–7268 / 64–73

Each figure is the median across the 421 grid cells holding the 572 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1950:6513 (-7.525, 145.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 421 distinct grid cells holding the 572 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1950:6513 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -7.50_145.625, lapse-corrected -279 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 167 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBorneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland, Caroline Is.· introduced: Chagos Archipelago, Bangladesh, Fiji, Hawaii
Kew's description“epiphyte or lithophyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker3.112, 101.689 · in the densest population, 142 records (24% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 586 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 355 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5099 km away. 1026 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 14 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 586 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Asplenium nidusAsplenium nidusAsplenium nidusAsplenium nidusAsplenium nidusAsplenium nidusAsplenium nidusAsplenium nidus

Photographs: (c) Leon Perrie, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Asplenium nidus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research
A Antonyan, Svetlana Sharoyan, H. Harutyunyan, Luciano Barboni (2025) · International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research
Flavonoids and Other Phenolic Compounds from Medicinal Plants for Pharmaceutical and Medical Aspects: An Overview
Duangjai Tungmunnithum, Areeya Thongboonyou, Apinan Pholboon, Aujana Yangsabai (2018) · Medicines
Flavonoids a Bioactive Compound from Medicinal Plants and Its Therapeutic Applications
Arpita Roy, Ariba Khan, Irfan Ahmad, Saad Alghamdi (2022) · BioMed Research International
Ethnomedicinal botany of the Apatani in the Eastern Himalayan region of India
Chandra Prakash Kala (2005) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Arsenic hyperaccumulation by different fern species
Fang‐Jie Zhao, S. J. Dunham, S. P. McGrath (2002) · New Phytologist
Interactions among Foundation Species and Their Consequences for Community Organization, Biodiversity, and Conservation
Christine Angelini, Andrew H. Altieri, Brian R. Silliman, Mark D. Bertness (2011) · BioScience
Fern gametophytes as experimental material
John H. Miller (1968) · The Botanical Review
Clathrin-dependent endocytosis is required for immunity mediated by pattern recognition receptor kinases
Malick Mbengué, Gildas Bourdais, F. Gervasi, Martina Beck (2016) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Oil palm expansion into rain forest greatly reduces ant biodiversity in canopy, epiphytes and leaf-litter
Tom M. Fayle, Edgar C. Turner, Jake L. Snaddon, Vun Khen Chey (2010) · Basic and Applied Ecology
Ornamental Plants as Invasive Aliens: Problems and Solutions in Kruger National Park, South Africa
Llewellyn C. Foxcroft, David M. Richardson, John R. Wilson (2007) · Environmental Management

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Asplenium 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 127 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.