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Lepisorus microphyllus; photograph Donna Belder, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYDonna Belder, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Lepisorus microphyllus (C.Presl) C.F.Zhao, R.Wei & X.C.Zhang ex C.S.Chang, H.Kim & K.S.Chang

Polypodiaceae · China South-Central, Hainan +8 · listed by its family as a fern or moss

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Lepisorus microphyllus (C.Presl) C.F.Zhao, R.Wei & X.C.Zhang ex C.S.Chang, H.Kim & K.S.Chang: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (C.Presl).

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Lepisorus microphyllus, photograph Gustaf Fredell, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFLepisorus microphyllus, photograph Gustaf Fredell, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFLepisorus microphyllus, photograph Gustaf Fredell, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFLepisorus microphyllus, photograph Gustaf Fredell, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFLepisorus microphyllus, photograph 如此甚好, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFLepisorus microphyllus, photograph Samuele Papeschi, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
7.8°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,762mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–35DLI
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 April 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

Lepisorus microphyllum, the green penny fern, is a semi-succulent species of fern in the family Polypodiaceae. It is native to parts of China, Japan, and the eastern Asian seaboard.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lepisorus microphyllus", 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 “rhizomatous epiphyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,812 mm of 2,564 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.7 °C against a yearly mean of 18.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

2,564 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,812 mm of it April to September. Wettest month September at 360 mm, driest month December at 72 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,618 mm to 4,354 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,762 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,564 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: 15 to 35 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -0.7 °C to 13.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.0 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 7.8 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 68% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 “rhizomatous 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 Lepisorus microphyllus through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 7.8 °C; 2,564 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 15–35RH 61–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 449 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 6–1815 / 7–1918 / 10–2121 / 14–2423 / 18–2725 / 21–2927 / 24–3028 / 25–3026 / 23–2822 / 19–2619 / 14–2315 / 8–19
Night °C8 / -1–149 / 0–1411 / 3–1614 / 8–1917 / 13–2220 / 17–2523 / 19–2624 / 19–2621 / 17–2417 / 12–2213 / 7–1910 / 2–15
Rain mm83 / 39–248131 / 56–295172 / 86–250192 / 120–251278 / 148–401353 / 221–543302 / 198–476327 / 180–505360 / 196–622185 / 68–544109 / 51–41072 / 36–275
DLI16 / 13–2120 / 16–2426 / 22–2931 / 27–3432 / 29–3632 / 29–3535 / 31–3933 / 31–3528 / 26–3024 / 21–2718 / 16–2315 / 13–20
RH %62 / 55–7163 / 56–7164 / 57–7164 / 59–7165 / 61–7167 / 64–7168 / 64–7267 / 65–7066 / 62–7163 / 58–7162 / 57–7161 / 55–70

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1174 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 2.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.0 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 449 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (987 records in those cells; 12 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1347:6014 (22.625, 120.725). 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 449 distinct grid cells holding 987 of the 999 in-range records (12 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1347:6014 (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 22.50_120.625, lapse-corrected +1174 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1382 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, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, East Himalaya, Vietnam · 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 marker24.882, 121.537 · in the densest population, 713 records (42% of those in range)
Kew's description“rhizomatous epiphyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1695 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 987 of them in the land cells it reads, of 999 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 841 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2039 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 696 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 1695 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Lepisorus microphyllus, photograph 1did not loadLepisorus microphyllus, photograph 2did not loadLepisorus microphyllus, photograph 3did not loadLepisorus microphyllus, photograph 4did not loadLepisorus microphyllus, photograph 5did not loadLepisorus microphyllus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Gustaf Fredell, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); 如此甚好, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Samuele Papeschi, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

Pyrrosia lingua Pyrrosia lingua Tongue fern Photo: CC BY, Michael BerardozziSymplocos sumuntia Symplocos sumuntia Symplocaceae Photo: CC BY, 葉淑蓮Zanthoxylum ailanthoides Zanthoxylum ailanthoides Alianthus-like prickly-ash Photo: CC BY, chiuluanFicus sarmentosa Ficus sarmentosa Impressed Sarmentosa Fig Photo: CC0, author not statedPilea peploides Pilea peploides Pacific Island clearweed Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu)Prunus zippeliana Prunus zippeliana Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng

Other Lepisorus 13 in the reference

Lepisorus buergerianus Lepisorus buergerianus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, KeisotyoLepisorus carnosus Lepisorus carnosus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, 王天Lepisorus ensatus Lepisorus ensatus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, Kiwi ShenLepisorus fortuni Lepisorus fortuni Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, Yu-Chang Chen Lepisorus longifolius Polypodiaceae Lepisorus macrosphaerus Polypodiaceae Lepisorus monilisorus Lepisorus monilisorus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, Yu-Chang ChenLepisorus mucronatus Lepisorus mucronatus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldLepisorus ovatus Lepisorus ovatus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz Lepisorus palmatopedatus Polypodiaceae Lepisorus spicatus Lepisorus spicatus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, naturewatchwidowLepisorus superficialis Lepisorus superficialis Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu) all 14 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Drymoglossum carnosum subsp. obovatum; Drymoglossum carnosum var. obovatum; Drymoglossum microphyllum; Drymoglossum nobukoanum; Drymoglossum obovatum and 16 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFWFOWikidataPOWOWikipedia

The record

Family
Polypodiaceae
Described by
(C.Presl) C.F.Zhao, R.Wei & X.C.Zhang ex C.S.Chang, H.Kim & K.S.Chang
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +7
Wild records
1695 in range · 841 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 11208838 is Lepisorus microphyllus (C.Presl) ; the page links Kew's Lepisorus microphyllus (C.Presl) C.F.Zhao, R.Wei & X.C.Zhang ex C.S.Chang, H.Kim & K.S.Chang, 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; 90 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (45 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 14 at a herbarium, 31 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 22.50_120.625, lapse-corrected +1174 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1174 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Lepisorus microphyllus (C.Presl) C.F.Zhao, R.Wei & X.C.Zhang ex C.S.Chang, H.Kim & K.S.Chang (no item's number)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 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 answeredasked 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 76 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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