| Description | An easy fern to grow in the interior of buildings. In it natural habitat Birds Nest Fern grows as an epiphytic plant. |
|---|---|
| Plant Type | All Plants, Ferns - Tropical |
| Hardiness Zone | 10b-11 |
| Sunlight | Tolerates a wide range but prefers bright. |
| Moisture | Prefers evenly moist to approach dryness. It tolerates drier conditions but prefers higher humidity. Grows faster in more humid conditions. |
| Growing Media | Average house or a very coarse, fiborous mix. |
| Temperature | Tolerates a wide temperature range but will grow faster in a warmer site. |
| Flowers | This is a non-flowering plant. |
| Leaves | The long, lanceolate, shiny fronds radiate out from the center base of the plant forming a vase. If you look down into the plant it resembles a bird's nest. |
| Stems | The stem is a compressed crown located at the base of the plant. It is very gnarled and looks like osmunda. |
| Dimensions | In a greenhouse or in its native origin it can become a large plant (1.5 meters tall). In the house it grows slow and will stay in bounds. |
| Maintenance | With time the outer fronds will become tattered and should be removed. These outer fronds will last longer if the plant is free standing and not physically damaged. The drooping of these outside fronds may have evolved to protect the roots from the drying sun. |
| Propagation | Plants are grown from spores. These spores are produced in profuse amounts on the underside of some of the fronds in brown structures called sorus. |
| Native Site | Native to tropical Asia, Polynesia, Australia and Eastern Africa growing as an epiphytic plant. |
| Misc Facts | The species nidus means "nest". |
| Author's Notes | The challenge to growing this plant is not keeping it alive but keeping it looking good. No matter how hard you try the outer leaves seem to get tattered. We would just cut them off and new ones grew from the center. |
| Notes & Reference | #23-Indoor Ferns (Boy Altman), #70-Indoor Plants (Courtuer and Clark) |
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