Bird's Nest Fern

Description

Asplenium nidus is an epiphytic species of fern in the family Aspleniaceae, native to tropical southeastern Asia, eastern Australia, Hawaii, Polynesia,[citation needed] Christmas Island,[citation needed] India, and eastern Africa. It is known by the common names bird's-nest fern (a name shared by other aspleniums) or simply nest fern. A 2015 molecular study found that Asplenium nidus is polyphyletic, meaning that some populations were not closely related to others—A. nidus from Madagascar, Vanuatu and New Guinea were more closely related to other species than each other. Hence a revision with sampling of the species across its range was required to delineate the taxon and identify cryptic species.