Invasive Plant: Old World Climbing Fern

This is Lygodium microphyllum, a new threat to woodlands and shrub borders in Alabama. I took this picture in my mother-in-law's flower bed in south Alabama. The first time she saw it at the edge of her woods, she started using it in flower arrangements and table decorations. She thought it was beautiful. So did I. Now it has started to wrap things up similar to kudzu. The fronds can grow to 100 feet, easily overtopping trees. It shades out understory natives and mature trees alike. The mats of old vegetation, called rachis, allow fire to climb to the tops of trees that would not ordinarily be bothered by fire.



The plant spreads by spores,the reproductive method of ferns, and since the spores produce a small plant that is easily overlooked, it can become a pest rapidly.Spores can be spread by wind, birds, footsteps, and tree harvesting equipment. It also spreads by resprouting almost anywhere along it's length from a leaf. typically the lower fronds are vegetative while the fertile leaves with spores sprout nearer the top end of the plant.


This summer I saw Lygodium microphyllum across the road from my house on some recently cut over land. I believe that it must have arrived on the harvest equipment.If you are having trees harvested, please stipulate that the equipment must be cleaned before it enters your property.