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Elaphoglossum decoratum (Kunze) T.Moore

Showy tonguefern

Dryopteridaceae · Costa Rica, Guatemala +16 · listed by its family as a fern or moss

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.4°C
Record low 11.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
22°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
4,678mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–30DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Cultivation

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

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (3,497 mm of 4,472 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 1.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern 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

4,472 mm in the median year at the habitat, 3,497 mm of it April to November. Wettest month May at 486 mm, driest month February at 201 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,472 mm to 5,615 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 4,678 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 4,472 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: 23 to 30 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.4 °C, the absolute minimum 11.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.9 °C in January, February and September (across the grid cells of the range 10.8 °C to 17.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.4 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.4 °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: 70 to 74% 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 +465 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 Dryopteridaceae 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Elaphoglossum decoratum through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, April, May, August, September, October, November and December, mean daily high 22 °C; coldest months January, February and September, mean nightly low 14.9 °C; 4,472 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.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°29.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 23–30RH 70–74%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 20 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 °C22 / 18–2522 / 18–2522 / 19–2522 / 19–2522 / 18–2421 / 18–2421 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 19–2522 / 19–2522 / 19–2522 / 18–25
Night °C15 / 11–1815 / 12–1815 / 12–1815 / 13–1815 / 13–1815 / 12–1915 / 11–1815 / 11–1815 / 12–1815 / 12–1816 / 12–1815 / 12–18
Rain mm219 / 42–436201 / 45–435252 / 76–492396 / 124–580486 / 280–674459 / 294–616425 / 204–625423 / 190–571458 / 243–572468 / 201–564382 / 234–468303 / 145–458
DLI29 / 22–3330 / 24–3530 / 23–3627 / 22–3526 / 21–2823 / 21–2724 / 22–3027 / 23–3228 / 22–3426 / 21–3325 / 20–3127 / 20–32
RH %70 / 64–8070 / 64–7970 / 65–7872 / 67–7872 / 68–7972 / 68–7971 / 67–7971 / 65–7972 / 65–8074 / 65–8073 / 66–8071 / 65–80
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 20 grid cells holding the 21 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 1657:2096 (7.125, -75.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.9 °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 20 distinct grid cells holding 21 of the 21 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1657:2096 (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 7.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected +465 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1432 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.
NativeCosta Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast · 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 marker9.756, -83.78 · in the densest population, 61 records (27% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 223 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 21 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 212 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 6 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 202 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 223 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Utricularia jamesoniana Utricularia jamesoniana Jameson's utricularia Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffMaxillaria jacquelineana Maxillaria jacquelineana Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Thibaud Aronson Werauhia viridiflora Bromeliaceae Guzmania angustifolia Guzmania angustifolia Bromeliaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated Matisia bolivarii Malvaceae Rhododendron fallacinum Rhododendron fallacinum Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, ml_ls

Other Elaphoglossum 15 in the reference

Elaphoglossum apodum Elaphoglossum apodum Dryopteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Matteo Bellucci Elaphoglossum ciliatum Dryopteridaceae Elaphoglossum conforme Elaphoglossum conforme Dryopteridaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloElaphoglossum crinitum Elaphoglossum crinitum West Indian Tongue Fern Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerElaphoglossum engelii Elaphoglossum engelii Dryopteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Skjold Søndergaard Elaphoglossum erinaceum Guadeloupe tonguefern Elaphoglossum latifolium Broadleaf tonguefern Elaphoglossum lingua Elaphoglossum lingua Dryopteridaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedElaphoglossum luridum Elaphoglossum luridum Dryopteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Patrícia MeesElaphoglossum mathewsii Elaphoglossum mathewsii Dryopteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Julien RenoultElaphoglossum metallicum Elaphoglossum metallicum Dryopteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Skjold Søndergaard Elaphoglossum moritzianum Dryopteridaceae all 16 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Acrostichum decoratum; Olfersia decorata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Dryopteridaceae
Described by
(Kunze) T.Moore
Native to
Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua +15
Wild records
223 in range · 212 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected +465 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
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 41 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…