Species
+

Asplenium scolopendrium L.

Hart's tonguefern, Hart's-tongue, hart's tongue, hart's-tongue fern

Climate known 60 photographs Fern or moss
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Asplenium scolopendrium, commonly known as the hart's-tongue fern, is an evergreen fern in the family Aspleniaceae native to the Northern Hemisphere.

Text from Wikipedia, “Asplenium scolopendrium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Asplenium

Asplenium is a genus of about 700 species of ferns, often treated as the only genus in the family Aspleniaceae, though other authors consider Hymenasplenium separate, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences, a different chromosome count, and structural differences in the rhizomes. The type species for the genus is Asplenium marinum.

Text from Wikipedia, “Asplenium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Aspleniaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Føroyar, Great Britain +63
Wild records
710 in range· 273 open

At a glance

Warmest month
21°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
903mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 89 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a fern or moss by the genus Asplenium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 903 mm a year, wettest October at 89 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 5 °C (archetype minimum for a fern or moss, above the -4.9 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Glossopteris scolopendrium (L.) Raf., 1815; Phyllitis scolopendrium subsp. scolopendrium; Phyllitis vulgare Hill.

Cultivation

Grouped as a fern or moss by the genus Asplenium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (648 mm of 903 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 13.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 903 mm a year, wettest October at 89 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

903 mm a year at the habitat, 648 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 89 mm, driest April at 56 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 702 mm to 1427 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 5 °C (archetype minimum for a fern or moss, above the -4.9 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.9 °C, the absolute minimum -12.4 °C, about 55 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.0 °C in February (across the envelope cells -1.8 °C to 3.2 °C), warmest day 21.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is -4.9 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a fern or moss (grouped by the genus Asplenium, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 5 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 903 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 532 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -12.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 25.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost25.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-12.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 4–34RH 61–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 532 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 4–86 / 5–89 / 8–1112 / 11–1416 / 14–1819 / 16–2121 / 18–2421 / 18–2318 / 16–2014 / 12–169 / 8–116 / 4–9
Night °C1 / -2–41 / -2–33 / 1–55 / 3–69 / 7–1011 / 10–1314 / 12–1514 / 12–1511 / 10–138 / 7–105 / 2–72 / -1–4
Rain mm78 / 58–13661 / 45–10070 / 51–11156 / 45–10068 / 54–11372 / 50–11079 / 50–11179 / 53–12579 / 59–12589 / 71–15087 / 68–14685 / 65–146
DLI5 / 4–910 / 9–1517 / 16–2227 / 25–3033 / 31–3634 / 32–3833 / 31–3828 / 26–3219 / 18–2412 / 10–166 / 5–104 / 3–7
RH %67 / 64–6965 / 62–6763 / 60–6561 / 59–6361 / 59–6361 / 59–6461 / 59–6462 / 59–6563 / 61–6565 / 63–6767 / 64–6968 / 65–70

Each figure is the median across the 532 grid cells holding the 707 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 751:3561 (52.425, -1.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 532 distinct grid cells holding the 707 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 751:3561 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 52.50_-1.875, lapse-corrected +40 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 143 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Føroyar, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Yakutskiya, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Manchuria, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Ontario, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Alabama, Maryland, Tennessee, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast· introduced: Falkland Is.
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.463, -3.44 · in the densest population, 563 records (79% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 710 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 273 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 120 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 3 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 710 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Asplenium scolopendriumAsplenium scolopendriumAsplenium scolopendriumAsplenium scolopendriumAsplenium scolopendriumAsplenium scolopendriumAsplenium scolopendriumAsplenium scolopendrium

Photographs: (c) Владимир Дворкин, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Randy A Nonenmacher, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) J Castillo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Victoria J. Burton, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Lars Willighagen, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Asplenium scolopendrium, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Green synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles using pomegranate seeds extract and photocatalytic activity evaluation for the degradation of textile dye
Ismat Bibi, Nosheen Nazar, Sadia Ata, Misbah Sultan (2019) · Journal of Materials Research and Technology
Global variation in the thermal tolerances of plants
Lesley T. Lancaster, Aelys M. Humphreys (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The photosynthetic capacity in 35 ferns and fern allies: mesophyll CO 2 diffusion as a key trait
Tiina Tosens, Keisuke Nishida, Jorge Gago, Rafael E. Coopman (2015) · New Phytologist
The origin and evolution of stomata
James Clark, Brogan J. Harris, Alexander J. Hetherington, Natalia Hurtado-Castano (2022) · Current Biology
Flora of Macaronesia. Checklist of vascular plants. 4. revised edition
Aslak Kappel Hansen, P. Sunding (1993) · Sommerfeltia
RETICULATE EVOLUTION IN THE APPALACHIAN ASPLENIUMS
Warren H.‏ Wagner (1954) · Evolution
Floristic diversity in different urban ecological niches of a southern European city
Mirko Salinitro, Alessandro Alessandrini, Alessandro Zappi, Dora Melucci (2018) · Scientific Reports
Evidence for Maternal Transmission of Chloroplast DNA in the Genus Asplenium (Aspleniaceae, Pteridophyta)
Johannes Vogel, Steve J. Russell, Fred Rumsey, John Barrett (1998) · Botanica Acta
A review of the use of pteridophytes for treating human ailments
Xavier-ravi Baskaran, Antony-varuvel Geo Vigila, Shou-zhou Zhang, Shixiu Feng (2018) · Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE B
Stomatal Blue Light Response Is Present in Early Vascular Plants
Michio Doi, Yuki Kitagawa, Ken‐ichiro Shimazaki (2015) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Phylogeography of the Sino-Himalayan Fern Lepisorus clathratus on “The Roof of the World”
Li Wang, Zhiqiang Wu, Nadia Bystriakova, Stephen W. Ansell (2011) · PLoS ONE
Phyto-mediated metallic nano-architectures via Melissa officinalis L.: synthesis, characterization and biological properties
Irina Fierăscu, Milen I. Georgiev, Alina Orțan, Radu Claudiu Fierăscu (2017) · Scientific Reports

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Asplenium 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.