Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Nephrolepis hirsutula

Edible: Shoots

A coarse fern with creeping rootstocks. It keeps growing from year to year and forms dense colonies. The stem is erect producing a tuft of fronds. The stalks are 10-40 cm long and pale brown. The fronds are narrow with leaflets. The fronds are 0.3 to 1.2 m long and 8 to 15 cm wide. They are erect or arch over. The leaflets are 5-10 cm long by 1-2 cm wide. The base has a narrow, triangle shaped lobe. There are rounded teeth along the edge. The plant grows both on the ground and on other plants. It is smaller than Nephrolepis biserrata. The fertile leaflets are more narrow than the sterile ones. The spore bodies or sori are near the edge of the leaf.

A tropical plant. Widely distributed in low and medium altitudes in the Philippines. Common in Asia and the Pacific. It is normally in lowland areas near rainforest. It is very frost tender.

Common Names: Hairy Sword Fern, Rough sword fern, Alolokdo, Ammokadede, Handifangivah, Handifilaa, Julia, Keesfilaa, Kohuku, Lau maile kimoa, Pakis kincha, Pakis pedang kasar, Paku andam, Paku jeler, Paku sepat, Saqato, Scaly swordfern, Te keang

Synonyms: Probably now Nephrolepis multiflora
Polypodium hirsutulum Forst.f.;
Nephrolepis exaltata var. hirsutula (Forst.f.) Bak.;