Tectaria incisa

Non-Native to Florida

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Download a page (PDF 177 KB) from Identification and Biology of Nonnative Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas – Second Edition, by K.A. Langeland, H.M. Cherry, et al. University of Florida-IFAS Pub SP 257. 2008.

Date of introduction to Florida: 1929 (ornamental)

(from Strangers in Paradise, Impact and Management of Nonindigenous Species in Florida, Chapter 2: Florida’s Invasion by Nonindigenous Plants: History, Screening, and Regulation, by D.R. Gordon and K.P. Thomas, pp. 21-37. Island Press, Washington, DC, 1997.)

Tectaria incisa is occasionally found growing in swamps and wet hammocks, as well as terrestrial or on limestone outcrops in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward Counties. It is apparently a recent introduction from Tropical America (Wunderlin, 2003). This invasive fern can be mistaken for the rare Florida native, broad halberd fern.

View more information and pictures about invasive incised halberd fern, as contained in the Langeland/Burks book, Identification & Biology of Non-Native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas.

See the UF/IFAS Assessment, which lists plants according to their invasive status in Florida.

View the herbarium specimen image of the University of Florida Herbarium Digital Imaging Projects.