Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Pteris longifolia; photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2021-08-26

Pteris longifolia L.

Longleaf brake; Long-leaved brake

Pteridaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +18 · listed by its genus as a fern or moss

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Pteris longifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPteris longifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPteris longifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPteris longifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPteris longifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPteris longifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 36 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
16.1°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
May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,558mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–41DLI
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 May to October, 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

Pteris longifolia, the longleaf brake is a species of fern in the Pteridoideae subfamily of the Pteridaceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pteris longifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Pteris

Pteris (brake) is a genus of about 300 species of ferns in the subfamily Pteridoideae of the family Pteridaceae. They are native to tropical and subtropical regions, southward to New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, north to Japan and North America. 78 species are found in China. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pteris", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a fern or moss, listed under the genus Pteris in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “rhizomatous geophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,115 mm of 1,465 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.4 °C against a yearly mean of 23.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

1,465 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,115 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 234 mm, driest month March at 44 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 927 mm to 2,358 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,558 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,465 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: 26 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.1 °C to 21.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.9 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 16.1 °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 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. 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 genus Pteris in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “rhizomatous geophyte”. 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 Pteris longifolia through the yearWarmest month May, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.1 °C; 1,465 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 quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 26–41RH 61–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 196 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 °C25 / 19–2826 / 21–2927 / 22–3128 / 24–3329 / 24–3328 / 23–3128 / 22–3128 / 23–3127 / 22–3126 / 21–2926 / 20–2825 / 19–28
Night °C16 / 9–2116 / 10–2117 / 11–2119 / 13–2320 / 14–2421 / 15–2521 / 14–2421 / 14–2521 / 14–2419 / 13–2418 / 11–2317 / 10–22
Rain mm52 / 14–11846 / 13–9344 / 9–10262 / 21–135121 / 58–246199 / 105–359188 / 89–348199 / 109–352234 / 158–382174 / 90–29588 / 24–20958 / 13–158
DLI28 / 24–3332 / 28–3738 / 34–4341 / 37–4441 / 38–4337 / 33–4338 / 34–4338 / 33–4233 / 29–3831 / 28–3428 / 25–3226 / 22–31
RH %64 / 56–6863 / 55–6761 / 53–6661 / 54–6663 / 56–6766 / 62–6965 / 60–6966 / 61–6967 / 63–7167 / 63–7065 / 59–6965 / 57–69

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1017 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 12.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.5 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 196 grid cells holding the 230 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 1438:2066 (18.075, -76.675). 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 196 distinct grid cells holding 230 of the 230 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1438:2066 (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 18.00_-76.875, lapse-corrected +1017 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1155 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Venezuelan Antilles, Venezuela, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South · introduced: Caroline Is., Alabama, Bermuda · 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 marker16.67, -92.532 · in the densest population, 226 records (43% of those in range)
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 523 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 230 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 406 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 104 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 293 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 523 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Pteris longifolia, photograph 1did not loadPteris longifolia, photograph 2did not loadPteris longifolia, photograph 3did not loadPteris longifolia, photograph 4did not loadPteris longifolia, photograph 5did not loadPteris longifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

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

Triumfetta semitriloba Triumfetta semitriloba Wild Maho Photo: CC BY, Brynn FrickeTillandsia polystachia Tillandsia polystachia Airplant Photo: CC BY, Celso Henrique Varela RiosProsthechea cochleata Prosthechea cochleata Clamshell orchid Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerPicramnia antidesma Picramnia antidesma Picramniaceae Photo: CC BY, alejandrozabPiper auritum Piper auritum Vera Cruz pepper Photo: CC BY, T R Shankar RamanSarcoglottis sceptrodes Sarcoglottis sceptrodes Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez Marcial

Other Pteris 33 in the reference

Pteris altissima Pteris altissima Tall brake Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitrePteris argyraea Pteris argyraea Pteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Pranav Chandra BosePteris arisanensis Pteris arisanensis Pteridaceae Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿 Pteris aspericaulis Pteridaceae Pteris bahamensis Pteris bahamensis Bahama brake Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldPteris biaurita Pteris biaurita Thinleaf brake Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Pteris blumeana Pteris blumeana Pteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Eric KnightPteris cretica Pteris cretica Ribbon fern Photo: CC BY, jamie-aaPteris dactylina Pteris dactylina Pteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Yu-Chang ChenPteris dentata Pteris dentata Toothed Brake Photo: CC BY, Jeremy GilmorePteris dispar Pteris dispar Unequal-lobe brake fern Photo: CC0, author not statedPteris ensiformis Pteris ensiformis Slender brake Photo: CC BY, Kalvin Chan all 34 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Pteris aequalis; Pteris longifolia f. bipinnata; Pteris longifolia f. stipularis; Pteris longifolia var. angusta; Pteris longifolia var. decrescens and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Pteridaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +17
Wild records
523 in range · 406 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; 15 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 6 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 18.00_-76.875, lapse-corrected +1017 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1017 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 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
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 98 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…