Asian sword fern

Davallia multiflora Roxburgh, Calcutta J. Nat. Hist. 4: 515, plate 31 (left). 1844

Stem scales appressed, bicolored with margins transparent. Tubers absent. Leaves 3--25 × 0.3--1.6 dm. Petiole 0.4--4.4 dm, moderately to densely scaly; scales appressed, dark brown with pale margins. Blade sparsely to moderately scaly, hairy abaxially, hairs pale brown, 0.1--0.3 mm. Rachis 2.7--20 dm, points of pinna attachment 8--24 mm apart; scales scattered to dense, brown, margins pale. Central pinnae narrowly deltate, sometimes elliptic, 3.4--12.3 × 0.6--1.8 cm, base rounded basiscopically, slightly auriculate to truncate acroscopically (latter more common in sterile pinnae), acroscopic lobe acute to oblong, margins biserrate to irregularly serrate to serrulate, apex attenuate and occasionally slightly falcate; costae adaxially densely hairy, hairs pale, erect, 0.1--0.5 mm. Indusia circular to horseshoe-shaped, peltate or attached at narrow sinus, 1.1--1.3 mm wide. 2 n = 82.

Terrestrial or epiphytic in open waste places and roadsides; 0 m; introduced; Fla.

Nephrolepis multiflora is native to the Old World tropics and is widely scattered and naturalized in the New World tropics as an escaped cultigen.