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Elaphoglossum erinaceum (Fée) T.Moore

Guadeloupe tonguefern

Dryopteridaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +21 · 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)
10.0°C
Record low 8.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,095mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–41DLI
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 June to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. 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 a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,413 mm of 1,992 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.4 °C against a yearly mean of 17.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

1,992 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,413 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 311 mm, driest month March at 50 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,221 mm to 3,563 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,095 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,992 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: 29 to 41 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 10.0 °C, the absolute minimum 8.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 10.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 5.7 °C to 17.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.4 °C in April and May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.0 °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: 62 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 +323 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 erinaceum through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 10.7 °C; 1,992 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.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°23.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER8.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 29–41RH 62–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 99 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 °C20 / 17–2521 / 18–2523 / 19–2624 / 19–2824 / 19–2823 / 18–2622 / 18–2522 / 19–2622 / 18–2521 / 18–2521 / 17–2520 / 17–25
Night °C11 / 6–1711 / 6–1812 / 7–1813 / 9–1914 / 10–2015 / 10–2014 / 10–2014 / 10–2014 / 10–2013 / 9–1912 / 8–1911 / 6–18
Rain mm61 / 15–18656 / 13–15750 / 9–23475 / 17–314147 / 62–386281 / 178–470303 / 207–465286 / 194–492311 / 205–564232 / 91–465115 / 20–33075 / 8–269
DLI31 / 25–3534 / 28–4038 / 31–4541 / 29–4840 / 26–4534 / 26–3834 / 27–3935 / 30–3931 / 28–3631 / 26–3529 / 24–3529 / 23–33
RH %64 / 51–7164 / 48–6962 / 45–6962 / 45–7064 / 51–7168 / 63–7268 / 62–7268 / 62–7269 / 64–7367 / 61–7366 / 56–7365 / 52–72
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 99 grid cells holding the 114 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 1680:2087 (5.975, -75.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.5 °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 99 distinct grid cells holding 114 of the 114 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1680:2087 (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 6.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected +323 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2171 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru · 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 marker10.183, -84.233 · in the densest population, 161 records (29% 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 548 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 114 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 508 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 42 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 434 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 548 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.

Epidendrum coriifolium Epidendrum coriifolium Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Elena Gaillard from New York, USAPeperomia san-joseana Peperomia san-joseana Piperaceae Photo: CC0, Jake RehageTillandsia multicaulis Tillandsia multicaulis Swamp fire Photo: CC BY, Rob WilliamsCyathea fulva Cyathea fulva Cyatheaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialLycaste virginalis Lycaste virginalis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Axel RuizPeperomia quadrifolia Peperomia quadrifolia Fourleaf peperomia Photo: CC BY, Letizia Weichgrebe

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 Miller Elaphoglossum decoratum Showy tonguefern Elaphoglossum engelii Elaphoglossum engelii Dryopteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Skjold Søndergaard 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 blepharodes; Acrostichum erinaceum; Acrostichum nitidum; Elaphoglossum blepharodes; Elaphoglossum blepharodes f. genuina and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Dryopteridaceae
Described by
(Fée) T.Moore
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +20
Wild records
548 in range · 508 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 6.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected +323 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 17103270-1 is Kew's for Elaphoglossum erinaceum (Fée) T.Moore
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.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 2026-10-22
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 79 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…