Species
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Microsorum scolopendria (Burm.fil.) Copel.

Creeping Dune Fern, Ebechab, Kangadja sampan raviny, Moho Béni, Pindza

Climate known 16 photographs Other epiphyte
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Microsorum scolopendria, synonym Phymatosorus scolopendria, commonly called monarch fern, musk fern, maile-scented fern, breadfruit fern, or wart fern is a species of fern within the family Polypodiaceae. This fern grows in the wild in the Western Pacific rim from Australia to New Caledonia to Fiji and throughout the South Pacific to French Polynesia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Microsorum scolopendria”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Microsorum

Microsorum is a genus of tropical ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Microsoroideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). Like most ferns, they grow from rhizomes, rather than roots. The genus includes some species that are lithophytic rheophytes.

Text from Wikipedia, “Microsorum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Polypodiaceae
Described by
(Burm.fil.) Copel.
Native to
Benin, Ghana, Guinea +78
Wild records
714 in range· 152 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Sep, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1754mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 188 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Microsorum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (January to February and April to September at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1754 mm a year, wettest May at 188 mm, driest March at 125 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 17.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as ? scolopendrium Burm.; ? terminalis Spreng. ex Link; Acrostichum obtusifolium Willd.; Chrysopteris longipes Link; Chrysopteris peltidea (Link) Link and 40 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Microsorum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (January to February and April to September at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1244 mm of 1754 mm) takes 8 months, January to February and April to September. Mean temperature moves 2.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1754 mm a year, wettest May at 188 mm, driest March at 125 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1754 mm a year at the habitat, 1244 mm of it January to February and April to September. Wettest month May at 188 mm, driest March at 125 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1005 mm to 3346 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 17.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 17.7 °C, the absolute minimum 16.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.6 °C in November (across the envelope cells 17.3 °C to 25.1 °C), warmest day 26.7 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a other epiphyte, 10 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 25 °C in Nov to 27 °C in Sep; mean night from 21 °C in Nov to 22 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Oct to Dec, is the three months around the coldest night. 1754 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 403 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 16.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°27.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)16.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 31–36RH 64–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 403 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 19–2927 / 20–2926 / 22–2926 / 24–2926 / 23–2927 / 21–2927 / 21–3027 / 21–3027 / 21–2926 / 22–2825 / 23–2826 / 20–28
Night °C22 / 13–2522 / 15–2522 / 17–2621 / 18–2622 / 17–2622 / 15–2622 / 14–2722 / 15–2622 / 16–2621 / 17–2521 / 17–2521 / 15–25
Rain mm136 / 29–418133 / 42–457125 / 53–366141 / 60–292188 / 43–322151 / 35–423165 / 35–420149 / 41–454181 / 63–445126 / 66–356131 / 49–295128 / 31–326
DLI34 / 19–4236 / 21–4033 / 26–3932 / 27–3931 / 23–3731 / 20–3631 / 21–3932 / 25–3632 / 29–3832 / 27–4232 / 21–4332 / 18–43
RH %64 / 60–7064 / 61–7064 / 61–7064 / 61–7065 / 60–7065 / 57–7064 / 57–6965 / 59–6964 / 61–6964 / 61–6964 / 60–6964 / 60–70

Each figure is the median across the 403 grid cells holding the 693 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2226:4710 (-21.325, 55.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 403 distinct grid cells holding the 693 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2226:4710 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -21.50_55.625, lapse-corrected +278 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 370 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBenin, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Hainan, China Southeast, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Howland-Baker Is., Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Easter Is., Line Is., Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is.· introduced: Florida, Bermuda, Puerto Rico
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte or epiphyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-29.504, 31.237 · in the densest population, 244 records (34% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 714 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 152 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 21 km away. 32 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 21 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 714 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Microsorum scolopendriaMicrosorum scolopendriaMicrosorum scolopendriaMicrosorum scolopendriaMicrosorum scolopendriaMicrosorum scolopendriaMicrosorum scolopendriaMicrosorum scolopendria

Photographs: monkeyjodey, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Dominik Maximilián Ramík, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Philippe Hornus, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA, iNaturalist via GBIF; Roland Godon, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Lisa_James, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Microsorum scolopendria, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Ecdysteroids from the medicinal fern Microsorum scolopendria (Burm. f.)
Eva Snogan, Isabelle Vahirua‐Lechat, Raimana Ho, Gildas Bertho (2007) · Phytochemical Analysis
IDENTIFIKASI TUMBUHAN PAKU EPIFIT PADA BATANG TANAMAN KELAPA SAWIT (Elaeis guineensis J.) DI LINGKUNGAN UNIVERSITAS BRAWIJAYA
Wahyu Ragil Prastyo, Suwasono Heddy, Agung Nugroho (2015) · Jurnal Produksi Tanaman
Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis of Genes in the 20-Hydroxyecdysone Biosynthesis in the Fern Microsorum scolopendria towards Challenges with Foliar Application of Chitosan
Siriporn Sripinyowanich, Sahanat Petchsri, Pumipat Tongyoo, Taek‐Kyun Lee (2023) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Stereochemical Assignment of C-24 and C-25 of Amarasterone A, a Putative Biosynthetic Intermediate of Cyasterone
Yui Hirayama, Keiko Okuzumi, Hironori Masubuti, Hidehiro Uekusa (2014) · The Journal of Organic Chemistry
Chemistry and Bioactivity of Microsorum scolopendria (Polypodiaceae): Antioxidant Effects on an Epithelial Damage Model
Cristóbal Balada, Valentina Díaz, Mónica Castro, Macarena Echeverría‐Bugueño (2022) · Molecules
Misidentification ofMicrosorum scolopendriain South Florida
Jennifer Possley, Paul Howell (2015) · American Fern Journal
Calculating the Crystallite Size of Microsorum scolopendria AgCl Nanoparticles and Their Biological Activities
Christian Nanga Chick, Mohammed A. Mahdaly, Phillippe Belle Ebanda Kedi, Kiuchi Sonoko (2024) · Journal of Biomaterials and Nanobiotechnology
Pteridophyta di Sekitar Danau Sari Embun Kabupaten Tanah Laut dan Pengembangan Buku Saku
Gilang Satyo Adjie, Aulia Ajizah, Sri Amintarti (2022) · JUPEIS Jurnal Pendidikan dan Ilmu Sosial
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Microsorum 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 16 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.