Microsorum scolopendria

Common Name: serpent fern

Family: Polypodiaceae

Common Synonyms: Phymatosorus scolopendria

USDA Hardiness Zone: NA

Growth Habit: Perennial fern

Origin: Asia

FISC Category: 1

FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: No

Introduction Date: Earliest Florida specimen vouchered in 2002

IFAS Assessment:

• North: OK
• Central: CAUTION
• South: CAUTION

Description

Perennial fern with brown-black, scaly, creeping rhizomes, 5 mm diameter. Usually terrestrial but can be epiphytic. Leaf blades broad, flat, entire, oblong-ovate to subdeltoid, shiny, dark green, 10-40 cm long and 35 cm wide, usually pinnately divided into one terminal and 1-8 pairs of lateral lobes, wings of the rachis about equal to the width of the lobes. Sori in 2 irregular rows on each side of the midrib, circular or elongate, 3 mm wide, in shallow depressions on the bottom leaf surface, resulting in raised areas on the upper leaf surface.

Habitat

Hammocks and mangroves

Comments

Leaves scented. Plant widespread in tropics of the world.

Control Methods

• Manual: NA
• Chemical: NA
• Biological: NA

Control Notes

No specific recommendations available.

References

People and Plants of Micronesia. Phymatosorus scolopendria. University of Hawaii at Manoa. http://manoa.hawaii.edu/botany/plants_of_micronesia/index.php/full-database/458-phymatosorus-scolopendria. Accessed on June 26, 2014.

Lindsay, S. & Middleton, D.J. (2012 onwards). Ferns of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/thaiferns/factsheets/index.php?q=Phymatosorus_scolopendria.xml. Accessed on June 26, 2014.

Wunderlin, R. P., and B. F. Hansen. 2008. Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/).[S. M. Landry and K. N. Campbell (application development), Florida Center for Community Design and Research.] Institute for Systematic Botany, University of South Florida, Tampa.