Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Elaphoglossum lingua; photograph Flor Alex, CC BY-SA, via GBIF CC BY-SAFlor Alex, CC BY-SA, via GBIF

Elaphoglossum lingua (C.Presl) Brack.

Dryopteridaceae · Costa Rica, Panama +12 · listed by its family as a fern or moss

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Elaphoglossum lingua (C.Presl) Brack.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Raddi) Brack.

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Elaphoglossum lingua, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedElaphoglossum lingua, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedElaphoglossum lingua, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedElaphoglossum lingua, photograph Daniel Barthelemy, CC BY-SA, via GBIFElaphoglossum lingua, photograph Daniel Barthelemy, CC BY-SA, via GBIFElaphoglossum lingua, photograph Daniel Barthelemy, CC BY-SA, via GBIF 9 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
4.5°C
Record low 2.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
18°C
Feb, Mar, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,172mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–33DLI
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 (1,489 mm of 1,991 mm) takes 8 months, February to May and September to December. Mean temperature moves 1.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,991 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,489 mm of it February to May and September to December. Wettest month October at 228 mm, driest month January at 112 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,255 mm to 3,967 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,172 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,991 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: 24 to 33 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 17, 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 4.5 °C, the absolute minimum 2.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 21.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 8.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.9 °C to 16.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 17.7 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.5 °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: 66 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 +93 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Elaphoglossum lingua through the yearWarmest months February, March, August and September, mean daily high 18 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 8.1 °C; 1,991 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, southern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°21.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER2.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 24–33RH 66–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 60 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 °C17 / 13–2718 / 14–2718 / 14–2617 / 14–2517 / 13–2317 / 12–2317 / 12–2318 / 13–2318 / 13–2317 / 13–2417 / 13–2517 / 13–26
Night °C9 / 5–209 / 5–2010 / 6–2010 / 6–209 / 6–189 / 6–178 / 5–168 / 5–169 / 5–179 / 6–189 / 6–199 / 5–20
Rain mm112 / 42–341141 / 63–297176 / 95–288205 / 117–371213 / 93–504131 / 71–478134 / 53–425125 / 54–375169 / 66–402228 / 132–461199 / 137–358158 / 69–289
DLI32 / 30–3533 / 29–3531 / 28–3527 / 23–3326 / 20–3024 / 17–3026 / 18–3329 / 23–3531 / 24–3629 / 25–3429 / 25–3430 / 28–35
RH %67 / 57–7167 / 58–7268 / 63–7269 / 64–7468 / 64–7367 / 63–7366 / 61–7366 / 60–7166 / 61–7168 / 63–7269 / 64–7268 / 62–71

Records on both sides of the equator: the 4 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 60 cells that remain: the 15 at least 10° south and the 45 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 60 grid cells holding the 75 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 1794:2033 (0.275, -78.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 21.2 °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 60 distinct grid cells holding 75 of the 81 in-range records on the southern side of the equator (4 cells poleward of 10° north, 15 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1794:2033 (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 0.50_-78.125, lapse-corrected +93 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2769 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, Panama, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South · 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 marker-26.002, -48.885 · in the densest population, 165 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 618 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 75 of them in the land cells it reads, of 81 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 556 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 11 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 537 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 618 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Elaphoglossum lingua, photograph 1did not loadElaphoglossum lingua, photograph 2did not loadElaphoglossum lingua, photograph 3did not loadElaphoglossum lingua, photograph 4did not loadElaphoglossum lingua, photograph 5did not loadElaphoglossum lingua, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); Daniel Barthelemy, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (3).

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

Columnea strigosa Columnea strigosa Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeMunnozia senecionidis Munnozia senecionidis Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, julianazuluaga-carreroMyrica pubescens Myrica pubescens Myricaceae Photo: CC BY, Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., CanadaSerpocaulon sessilifolium Serpocaulon sessilifolium Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeMyrcianthes rhopaloides Myrcianthes rhopaloides Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeAxinaea scutigera Axinaea scutigera Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch Uribe

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 erinaceum Guadeloupe tonguefern Elaphoglossum latifolium Broadleaf tonguefern Elaphoglossum 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 lingua; Acrostichum producens; Acrostichum spissum; Elaphoglossum eludens; Elaphoglossum producens and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Dryopteridaceae
Described by
(C.Presl) Brack.
Native to
Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic +11
Wild records
618 in range · 556 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 2651035 is Elaphoglossum lingua (Raddi) Brack.; the page links Kew's Elaphoglossum lingua (C.Presl) Brack., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 0.50_-78.125, lapse-corrected +93 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 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 answeredasked 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 84 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…