Species library β€Ί Asplenium β€Ί Asplenium serratum
Ferns Well documented

Asplenium serratum

Bird's nest spleenwort

A neotropical bird's-nest fern with a rosette of undivided, strap-shaped fronds with finely toothed edges, growing on tree trunks, logs and limestone in humid lowland forest from Florida and Mexico to Paraguay and northeast Argentina. It is a shade plant of the forest interior, so it wants warmth, very humid air and an airy epiphytic root zone.

Asplenium serratum
Photo: Paulo Schwirkowski, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Warm-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Humid airBand in Plantistry
Light ShadeDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest periodGrows on trees (epiphyte)

Where it grows wild

An epiphyte, sometimes lithophytic, on tree trunks, rotting stumps, fallen logs and eroded limestone. Herbarium labels from Brazil and Colombia describe it low on trunks, often under 2 m from the ground, in shaded dense rainforest understorey and along trails and waterfalls.

Recorded from sea level to 3700 m, median 209 m (421 records); it is overwhelmingly a lowland plant, and records above about 1500 m are unusual.

FloridaMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaCosta RicaPanamΓ‘CubaJamaicaHaitiDominican RepublicPuerto RicoLeeward Is.

πŸ”’ Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

βœ“ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
βœ“ Humidity band, and how to hold it
βœ“ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
βœ“ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
βœ“ Substrate and airflow
βœ“ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY 3.0 licence, unmodified.