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Ophioglossum pendulum; photograph Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BYForest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ophioglossum pendulum L.

Ophioglossaceae · Tanzania, Comoros +52

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Ophioglossum pendulum, photograph Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsOphioglossum pendulum, photograph Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsOphioglossum pendulum, photograph Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsOphioglossum pendulum, photograph Vojtěch Zavadil, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsOphioglossum pendulum, photograph Vojtěch Zavadil, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsOphioglossum pendulum, photograph Vojtěch Zavadil, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 9 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.8°C
Record low 7.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan, Feb, Mar and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,359mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–41DLI
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 November to May, 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

Ophioderma pendulum is sometimes known as the old-world adder's-tongue. In Malaysia, it is known as daun rambu. It is a fern in the family Ophioglossaceae, and is the type species of the genus Ophioderma. It is most noteworthy for the length of its pendant fronds, up to 14 ft 9 in (4.5 meters) in length and three inches (8 cm) wide produced at intervals along a tree-clinging rhizome.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ophioderma pendulum", CC BY-SA 4.0; its title is one of this species' older names (GBIF Backbone), which is the proof that the article is this species'.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,613 mm of 2,111 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.6 °C against a yearly mean of 22.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to November.

Rain

2,111 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,613 mm of it November to May. Wettest month January at 300 mm, driest months (2 at 87 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,331 mm to 4,075 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,359 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,111 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: 24 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.8 °C, the absolute minimum 7.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 8.8 °C to 24.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.1 °C in January and February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.8 °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: 64 to 67% 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 +115 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.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ophioglossum pendulum through the yearWarmest months January, February, March and December, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 16.3 °C; 2,111 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.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°32.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER7.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 24–41RH 64–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 259 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 °C27 / 24–2927 / 24–2927 / 23–2826 / 21–2824 / 19–2822 / 17–2721 / 17–2722 / 18–2724 / 20–2725 / 21–2826 / 22–2927 / 24–29
Night °C22 / 18–2522 / 18–2521 / 17–2520 / 15–2519 / 12–2517 / 10–2516 / 9–2417 / 9–2418 / 11–2419 / 14–2420 / 15–2522 / 17–25
Rain mm300 / 129–532273 / 152–552268 / 133–551223 / 132–402174 / 91–327124 / 56–30195 / 42–31487 / 38–28187 / 34–297105 / 55–315153 / 101–316222 / 132–376
DLI39 / 30–4236 / 31–3934 / 30–3730 / 26–3526 / 20–3224 / 19–3125 / 20–3130 / 26–3435 / 31–3938 / 33–4340 / 31–4441 / 29–43
RH %67 / 61–7167 / 62–7267 / 61–7167 / 60–7266 / 59–7165 / 58–7164 / 56–7164 / 55–7064 / 56–7064 / 58–7065 / 60–7066 / 61–71

Records on both sides of the equator: the 85 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 259 cells that remain: the 173 at least 10° south and the 86 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 259 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (363 records in those cells; 9 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 2208:6574 (-20.425, 148.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.9 °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 259 distinct grid cells holding 363 of the 523 in-range records (9 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (85 cells poleward of 10° north, 173 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 2208:6574 (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 -20.50_148.750, lapse-corrected +115 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 169 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.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 7321401 (Ophioderma pendulum (L.) C.Presl, 1576 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeTanzania, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Seychelles, China South-Central, Hainan, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, Fiji, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marshall Is., Hawaii · introduced: Florida · 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 marker24.684, 121.579 · in the densest population, 148 records (14% 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 1050 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 363 of them in the land cells it reads, of 523 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 768 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4384 km away. 56 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 527 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 7321401 (Ophioderma pendulum (L.) C.Presl): Kew's file holds it as Ophioderma pendulum (L.) C.Presl (synonym under Ophioglossum pendulum L.); 1,576 records, from GBIF's download.
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 1050 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ophioglossum pendulum, photograph 1did not loadOphioglossum pendulum, photograph 2did not loadOphioglossum pendulum, photograph 3did not loadOphioglossum pendulum, photograph 4did not loadOphioglossum pendulum, photograph 5did not loadOphioglossum pendulum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3); Vojtěch Zavadil, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3).

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

Haplopteris elongata Haplopteris elongata Tape Fern Photo: CC BY, Kiwi ShenCordyline fruticosa Cordyline fruticosa Ti Plant Photo: CC0, author not statedArthropteris palisotii Arthropteris palisotii Tectariaceae Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Geniostoma rupestre Geniostoma rupestre Loganiaceae Photo: CC BY, Gabriel Dendrobium austrocaledonicum Orchidaceae Ceodes umbellifera Ceodes umbellifera Birdcatcher Tree Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Ophioglossum 6 in the reference

Ophioglossum costatum Large adder's tongue Ophioglossum engelmannii Ophioglossum engelmannii Limestone adder's-tongue Photo: CC BY, Shelby Lyn SandersOphioglossum lusitanicum Ophioglossum lusitanicum Least adder's-tongue Photo: CC BY, Em LamondOphioglossum petiolatum Ophioglossum petiolatum Longstem adderstongue Photo: CC BY, James Hardee Ophioglossum pycnostichum Ophioglossaceae Ophioglossum vulgatum Ophioglossum vulgatum Adder's-tongue Photo: CC0, author not stated

Names & registers

Also known as Ophioderma pendulum; Ophioglossum furcatum; Ophioglossum moultonii. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Ophioglossaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Tanzania, Comoros, Mauritius +51
Wild records
1050 in range · 768 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
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Ophioglossum pendulum L. (plant_name_id 3142378), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1576 records of GBIF's key 7321401, Ophioderma pendulum (L.) C.Presl (Kew's file holds it as Ophioderma pendulum (L.) C.Presl (synonym under Ophioglossum pendulum L.)): the GBIF download; 38 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (27 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 11 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 -20.50_148.750, lapse-corrected +115 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 17167860-1, POWO 17167860-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia redirects Ophioglossum pendulum to Ophioderma pendulum, an older name of this species (Ophioderma pendulum)
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 86 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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