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Leptochilus pteropus; photograph chiuluan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYchiuluan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Leptochilus pteropus (Blume) Fraser-Jenk.

Java fern

Polypodiaceae · China South-Central, Hainan +22 · listed by its family as a fern or moss

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Leptochilus pteropus, photograph chiuluan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFLeptochilus pteropus, photograph chiuluan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFLeptochilus pteropus, photograph chiuluan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFLeptochilus pteropus, photograph chiuluan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFLeptochilus pteropus, photograph 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFLeptochilus pteropus, photograph 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
12.8°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
29°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,594mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–37DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Leptochilus pteropus (synonym Microsorum pteropus) is a species of aquatic or semi-aquatic fern, commonly known as Java fern (after the Indonesian island of Java). It is predominantly known from Malaysia, Thailand, Northeastern India and parts of South China. It is a highly variable plant, with several different geographic varieties and physical forms that vary in leaf size, texture and shape (such as the crested-leaved 'Windelov' or 'Trident' varieties). Found in its natural habitat growing attached to riparian roots and rocks, it can grow fully or partially submerged, provided its roots and rhizome remain wet. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Leptochilus pteropus", 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 “helophyte or lithophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,712 mm of 3,545 mm) takes 8 months, February and May to November. Mean temperature moves 11.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to May and August.

Rain

3,545 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,712 mm of it February and May to November. Wettest month September at 476 mm, driest month January at 187 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,496 mm to 4,550 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,594 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,545 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 37 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 40).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.1 °C to 20.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 12.8 °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: 65 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 “helophyte 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 Leptochilus pteropus through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 12.8 °C; 3,545 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 15–37RH 65–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 81 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 °C17 / 15–2818 / 16–2920 / 19–3024 / 22–3026 / 24–3028 / 26–2929 / 27–3029 / 27–3027 / 26–2925 / 23–2922 / 20–2919 / 17–28
Night °C13 / 10–2114 / 11–2115 / 13–2218 / 16–2321 / 19–2423 / 20–2624 / 21–2724 / 21–2623 / 20–2521 / 19–2418 / 15–2215 / 12–21
Rain mm187 / 39–292235 / 55–356213 / 91–286217 / 160–281308 / 210–394374 / 183–583274 / 168–632356 / 195–501476 / 249–655377 / 128–578312 / 56–468216 / 52–319
DLI16 / 13–3319 / 15–3725 / 21–3829 / 26–3631 / 29–3533 / 30–3437 / 31–4034 / 31–3730 / 28–3424 / 21–3118 / 16–3015 / 13–30
RH %66 / 58–7367 / 59–7266 / 62–7267 / 64–7168 / 65–7168 / 64–7267 / 64–7168 / 65–7168 / 65–7267 / 63–7266 / 60–7265 / 58–71

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1060 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 1.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.4 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 81 grid cells holding the 127 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 1306:6020 (24.675, 121.025). 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 81 distinct grid cells holding 127 of the 127 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1306:6020 (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 24.50_121.250, lapse-corrected -1060 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 160 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, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sumatera, New Guinea · 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 marker24.937, 121.541 · in the densest population, 113 records (36% of those in range)
Kew's description“helophyte or lithophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 314 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 127 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 157 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 7 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 187 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 314 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Leptochilus pteropus, photograph 1did not loadLeptochilus pteropus, photograph 2did not loadLeptochilus pteropus, photograph 3did not loadLeptochilus pteropus, photograph 4did not loadLeptochilus pteropus, photograph 5did not loadLeptochilus pteropus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: chiuluan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

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

Curculigo capitulata Curculigo capitulata Palm grass Photo: CC BY, Kiwi ShenAsplenium setoi Asplenium setoi Aspleniaceae Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Alpinia uraiensis Alpinia uraiensis Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu) Thelypteris parishii Aspleniaceae Persicaria dichotoma Persicaria dichotoma Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好Lasianthus verticillatus Lasianthus verticillatus Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi)

Other Leptochilus 8 in the reference

Leptochilus cantoniensis Polypodiaceae Leptochilus decurrens Leptochilus decurrens Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng Leptochilus digitatus Polypodiaceae Leptochilus ellipticus Leptochilus ellipticus Broad-pinna Colysis Photo: CC BY, Kiwi ShenLeptochilus hemionitideus Leptochilus hemionitideus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sophia LeeLeptochilus longissimus Leptochilus longissimus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng Leptochilus pothifolius Polypodiaceae Leptochilus wrightii Leptochilus wrightii Chestnut-leaf colysis fern Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好

Names & registers

Also known as Microsorium pteropus; Pleopeltis pteropus-minor. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Polypodiaceae
Described by
(Blume) Fraser-Jenk.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +21
Wild records
314 in range · 157 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; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 24.50_121.250, lapse-corrected -1060 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1060 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 2026-10-22
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 30 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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