Nephrolepis exaltata

Family Davalliaceae. A terrestrial or epiphytic herbaceous plant with a short vertical rhizome bearing at the top a rosette of large once-pinnate leaves up to 70 cm long.

Leaves lanceolate in outline, light green, shortly petiolate. Segments ("feathers") lanceolate, 5 cm or more in length, with indistinctly scalloped-serrated margins. As the leaf ages they yellow and fall. On the underside of the segments, nearer the margin, there are round sori in two rows on both sides of the mid rib. On the rhizome terrestrial, leafless, scaly-covered rooting shoots (runners) are formed, giving rise to new plants. Sori are round, arranged in two rows on both sides of the midrib. Native to the tropics of SE Asia. In cultivation there are many garden forms that differ in the degree of segment dissection. There are forms with leaves pinnately divided three and four times, so that the whole plant looks lacy. Such are Fluffy Ruffles (twice-pinnate leaves) Whitmanii (thrice-pinnate leaves), smithii (four-times pinnate leaves).