Nephrolepis cordifolia var. cordifolia

Hovenkamp PH & Miyamoto F, 2005, A conspectus of the native and naturalized species of Nephrolepis (Nephrolepidaceae) in the world, Blumea 50, pp. 279-322 : 296

a. var. cordifolia

Rhizome creeping or upright, not forming a trunk, fronds erect to arching, to 70 cm long, pinnae usually more or less in the plane of the rachis, pinna-base more or less equal on both sides of the attachment, pinna margins straight.

Notes - In New Zealand N. cordifolia is reported as a garden escape or near warm streams by Brownsey & Smith-Dodsworth (1989). They distinguish the introduced plants (as N. cordifolia ) from a ʻnative speciesʼ, but their native species is exactly this variety, and the introduced forms therefore probably refer to a restricted number of vegetatively propagated cultivars.

In Africa, specimens which can be attributed to this variety occur only on the islands in the Indian Ocean (Madagascar, Réunion, Seychelles), while specimens from the continent with very few exceptions are referable to N. undulata . The few scattered specimens of N. cordifolia in the East of Africa may well be garden escapes, as suggested by Verdcourt (2001).