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Hymenophyllum nephrophyllum
Kidney fern is a small, delicate filmy fern from New Zealand with translucent, kidney-shaped fronds only a few cells thick. It needs constant humidity and shade, and it curls up in dry air and reopens when moisture returns.
Hymenophyllum nephrophyllum, commonly known as the kidney fern, is a filmy fern species native to New Zealand. It commonly grows on the forest floor of open native bush. Individual kidney-shaped fronds stand about 5–10 cm tall. In hot weather they shrivel up to conserve moisture, but open up again when the wet returns. This species has very thin fronds which are only four to six cells in thickness. In the Māori language they are also called raurenga.
A specific example of occurrence of H. nephrophyllum is within forested areas of Westland, New Zealand, where it occurs with other fern species including crown fern, Blechnum discolor.
Hymenophyllum alveolatum · Austral Filmy Fern · Hymenophyllum bivalve · Hymenophyllum brachypus · Creeping Filmy Fern · Hymenophyllum cristatum · Hymenophyllum cruentum · Common Filmy Fern · Drooping Filmy Fern · Hymenophyllum dilatatum · Falkland Filmy Fern · Fan Like Filmy Fern
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hymenophyllum nephrophyllum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
