''Ctenitis sloanei'' (commonly known as the Florida tree fern, red hair comb fern, Bermuda cave fern, or Florida lacefern) is a species of wood fern native to

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

(

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

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Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, the

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Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, and northwestern

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. Although it does not belong to the order

Cyatheales The order Cyatheales, which includes most tree ferns, is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic order of the fern class, Polypodiopsida. No clear morphology (biology), morphological features characterize all of the Cyatheales, but DNA sequence data indi ...

(the group that contains most tree ferns), it is still considered by some to be a type of

tree fern Tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk (botany), trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae ( ...

. This would make it the only tree fern native to the continental United States (the parts of the US that exclude Hawaii, Alaska and overseas territories). A member of the genus '' Ctenitis'', it was formerly classified under the genus ''

Dryopteris :''The moth genus ''Dryopteris'' is now considered a junior synonym of ''Oreta. ''Dryopteris'' , commonly called the wood ferns, male ferns (referring in particular to ''Dryopteris filix-mas''), or buckler ferns, is a fern genus in the family Dry ...

'' as ''Dryopteris ampla''. The population of this fern has been damaged and it is noted to possibly be endangered.

Description

''Ctenitis sloanei'' mainly grows in moist tropical hammocks and near exposed

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

. It is a

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

which grows up to 1.21 meters (4 ft) tall on average. The fern is also

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15555550 Dryopteridaceae Ferns of the Americas Endemic flora of Florida Flora of the United States Flora of the Southeastern United States Flora of Bermuda Flora of Mexico Flora of the Caribbean Flora of Southern America