Boston Swordfern (Nephrolepis exaltata (L.) Schott)

↑Range - Expand

Legend	Color
Native
Introduced
Introduced or Not Present
Native or Introduced

This tentative map is based on our own research. It may have limited data on Canada and/or Mexico, and there is some subjectivity in our assignment of plants as introduced vs. expanded. Read more in this blog post.

This species is native to Florida (and discontiguously, in South and Central America), but is widely grown as a houseplant outdoors in hanging baskets. It has escaped cultivation and established in the wild at scattered locations west of its native range. We mark these populations Introduced because they are separated from the native range by a substantial distance and they have established from landscaping escapes, and we see no evidence of this species expanding to fill in gaps in its range. Some of the populations. The way our ecoregions are drawn makes these populations look closer than they are; the distance between the closest native Florida population and the next-closest one in Northern MS, even though they are in the same level 3 ecoregion, is quite far. This species is native to a small region of Mexico along the Gulf Coast, but we have yet to build this portion of its map.