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Bosmania membranacea; photograph Sagnik Dutta Roy, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYSagnik Dutta Roy, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Bosmania membranacea (D.Don) Testo

Polypodiaceae · China South-Central, Hainan +17 · listed by its family as a fern or moss

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Bosmania membranacea, photograph 潘立傑 LICHIEH_PAN, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFBosmania membranacea, photograph 潘立傑 LICHIEH_PAN, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFBosmania membranacea, photograph 潘立傑 LICHIEH_PAN, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFBosmania membranacea, photograph chiuluan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFBosmania membranacea, photograph Yu-Chang Chen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFBosmania membranacea, photograph Yu-Chang Chen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
3.7°C
Record low -1.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jun, Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,569mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–34DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Bosmania membranacea is a species of fern in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Microsoroideae. It is native to tropical and subtropical Asia, from India to Japan and south to Sulawesi.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Bosmania membranacea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a fern or moss, listed under the family Polypodiaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte or lithophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,363 mm of 3,211 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.0 °C against a yearly mean of 18.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

3,211 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,363 mm of it May to September. Wettest month August at 528 mm, driest month December at 59 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,745 mm to 4,348 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,569 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,211 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 34 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 3.7 °C, the absolute minimum -1.1 °C, 2 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 0.8 °C to 10.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.3 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 69% 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 +547 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 family Polypodiaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte or lithophyte”. 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Bosmania membranacea through the yearWarmest months June, July and August, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 7.5 °C; 3,211 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost29.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-1.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 20–34RH 63–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 83 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C15 / 11–1916 / 13–2019 / 16–2322 / 19–2524 / 20–2725 / 21–2725 / 22–2825 / 21–2824 / 20–2722 / 18–2519 / 15–2316 / 12–20
Night °C8 / 1–119 / 2–1211 / 5–1414 / 9–1716 / 12–2018 / 14–2118 / 15–2219 / 15–2218 / 14–2115 / 10–1812 / 6–159 / 2–12
Rain mm68 / 17–139131 / 21–197164 / 44–209225 / 72–273372 / 161–507500 / 209–703482 / 227–815528 / 257–852481 / 247–626141 / 81–43860 / 18–28659 / 16–166
DLI21 / 15–2524 / 17–3030 / 23–3732 / 28–4132 / 29–3831 / 29–3434 / 25–3731 / 25–3328 / 26–2927 / 21–2922 / 17–2620 / 15–24
RH %63 / 55–7164 / 53–7164 / 51–7065 / 53–6966 / 60–6967 / 63–7067 / 64–7269 / 66–7268 / 66–7267 / 62–7165 / 59–7163 / 58–71
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 83 grid cells holding the 219 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1304:6030 (24.775, 121.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 83 distinct grid cells holding 219 of the 219 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1304:6030 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.00_121.250, lapse-corrected +547 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 776 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Taiwan, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Sulawesi · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker23.708, 120.922 · in the densest population, 254 records (51% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphyte or lithophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 501 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 219 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 194 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 7 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 282 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 501 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Bosmania membranacea, photograph 1did not loadBosmania membranacea, photograph 2did not loadBosmania membranacea, photograph 3did not loadBosmania membranacea, photograph 4did not loadBosmania membranacea, photograph 5did not loadBosmania membranacea, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: 潘立傑 LICHIEH_PAN, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); chiuluan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Yu-Chang Chen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Begonia chitoensis Begonia chitoensis Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Camellia salicifolia Camellia salicifolia Theaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPinus morrisonicola Pinus morrisonicola Taiwan White Pine Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te HsuMedinilla fengii Medinilla fengii Melastomataceae Photo: CC0, author not statedThladiantha nudiflora Thladiantha nudiflora Cucurbitaceae Photo: CC BY, 雲一百香果Pilea plataniflora Pilea plataniflora Urticaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, vrxz

Names & registers

Also known as Colysis membranacea; Lepidomicrosorium hymenodes; Lepidomicrosorium hymenoides; Microsorium membranaceum; Microsorum carinatum and 25 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Polypodiaceae
Described by
(D.Don) Testo
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +16
Wild records
501 in range · 194 open

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 record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.00_121.250, lapse-corrected +547 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every 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 44 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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