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Japanese Climbing FernLygodium japonicum |
| University of Florida, IFAS, Center for Aquatic Plants |
St. Johns River Water Management District |
Even though its leaflets are killed by winter frost, the rhizomes live on. It is believed to prefer
damp places. Its reproductive spores, like those of other ferns, can be transported long distances
by wind and even by vehicles.
How To Identify Japanese Climbing Fern
Japanese climbing fern is a fern with climbing fronds. It could be confused with Old World climbing fern (Lygodium microphyllum); the leaflet shapes easily tell the difference. What looks like a stem is actually a climbing, freely branching, leaf (frond) which may become as much as 100 feet long. The leafy branches off the main stem are 4-8 inches long. The leaflets of Japanese climbing fern are lobed and dissected. Leaflets are on stalks. Some of the leaflets look somewhat compressed--these are the leaflets that produce two rows of sporangia along the margin. Sporangia produce spores which lead to the development of gametophytes. Gametophytes are separate small plants that produce sexual cells, which unite to form an embryo and ultimately a new climbing fern. This alternating of vegetative and reproductive plants as separate generations is typical of most ferns. The reproductive plants (gametophytes) are usually very small, and rarely seen.
For more information and pictures about Japanese climbing
fern, as contained
in the Langeland/Burks book, Identification & Biology of Non-Native Plants in Florida's
Natural Areas, download this Acrobat .PDF file.
Click here
to see the herbarium specimen image of the
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA HERBARIUM DIGITAL IMAGING PROJECTS.