Pycnodoria cretica (L.) Small:
United States (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Pteris laurea Desv.:
Madagascar (Africa & Madagascar)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Pteris triphylla M. Martens & Galeotti:
Mexico (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Pteris cretica L.:
Argentina (South America)
Brazil (South America)
Bhutan (Asia)
Cambodia (Asia)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
El Salvador (Mesoamerica)
Guatemala (Mesoamerica)
Honduras (Mesoamerica)
India (Asia)
Japan (Asia)
Kriti (Europe)
Laos (Asia)
Mexico (Mesoamerica)
Nicaragua (Mesoamerica)
Nepal (Asia)
Panama (Mesoamerica)
Peru (South America)
Philippines (Asia)
Sri Lanka (Asia)
United States (North America)
Vietnam (Asia)
Caribbean (Caribbean)
China (Asia)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

United States

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Global Range: Indigenous to Hawaii, but first described from Crete (Valier 1995).

Stems slender, creeping, sparingly scaly; scales dark brown to chestnut brown. Leaves clustered to closely spaced, to 1 m. Petiole straw-colored to light brown distally, darker proximally, 10--50 cm, base sparsely scaly. Blade irregularly ovate, primarily and irregularly pedately divided, 10--30 × 6--25 cm; rachis not winged; only terminal pinna decurrent on rachis. Pinnae 1--3 pairs, well separated, blade often 5-parted with terminal pinna and 2 lateral pairs of pinnae remaining green through winter, not articulate; sterile pinnae to 25 × 0.8--1.5 cm, serrulate; fertile pinnae narrower than sterile pinnae, to ca. 11 mm wide, spiny-serrate; base acute acroscopically and decurrent (sometimes narrowly and barely so) basiscopically, glabrous; proximal pinnae with 1 (rarely 2) basiscopic lobes. Veins free, simple or forked. Sori narrow, blade tissue exposed abaxially.

Pycnodoria cretica (Linnaeus) Small

Comments: Terrestrial, in dry or wet forests up to 915m (Valier 1995).

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.


No available public DNA sequences.

Download FASTA File

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 3
Specimens with Barcodes: 13
Species With Barcodes: 1

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Pteris cretica is almost pantropical in distribution (C. V. Morton 1957). Because this species is so commonly and widely cultivated and appears to escape easily in warmer regions, its native range is uncertain. 

 Young leaves of young plants of Pteris multifida may key to P . cretica because only the terminal pinnae may be decurrent on the rachis as in P . cretica . Juveniles of P . multifida can be separated by proximal pinnae with long-attenuate apices and thinner-textured leaves than P . cretica . Juveniles of P . cretica have proximal pinnae with acute to blunt or nearly rounded apices and thicker-textured leaves.