''Ophioglossum reticulatum'', the netted adder's-tongue, is a species of

fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

in the family

Ophioglossaceae Ophioglossaceae, from Ancient Greek ὄφις (''óphis''), meaning "snake", and γλῶσσα (''glôssa''), meaning "tongue", also known as the adder's-tongue family, is a small family of ferns. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classificatio ...

. It has a pantropical/pansubtropical distribution; Latin America, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Yemen, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, warmer parts of China, Malesia, Korea, Japan, and many tropical islands. It is a

hexaploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than two paired sets of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes, one fro ...

and has the highest known number of chromosomes of any plant, 720. Its leaves—or leaf, individuals only grow one per year—are edible, and are regularly consumed by people in Africa and Asia.

References

reticulatum Ferns of the Americas Ferns of Africa Ferns of Asia Ferns of Oceania Flora of Mexico Flora of Central America Flora of the Caribbean Flora of Southern America Flora of Cape Verde Flora of West Tropical Africa Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Flora of Northeast Tropical Africa Flora of East Tropical Africa Flora of South Tropical Africa Flora of the Western Indian Ocean Flora of Yemen Flora of the Indian subcontinent Flora of Indo-China Flora of Malesia Flora of China Flora of Eastern Asia Flora of the Solomon Islands (archipelago) Flora of the Tuamotus Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Plants described in 1753 {{fern-stub