This fern does best in light shade or morning sun with regular to occasional irrigation - surprisingly water thrifty for a fern and in our coastal garden only gets infrequent irrigation (once every 4 to 6 weeks) during summer months. It is hardy to 20°F and was unharmed in our historic 1990 cold spell when temperatures dipped to 18° F for a short duration - listed as useful to USDA Zone 6 if given some protection. Give occasional grooming or an annual trimming to remove old fronds. This is a great fern to fill in between shrubs as a foundation planting in the dry shade garden.

Microlepia strigosa is native to the Himalayas, Sri Lanka, and from southeastern Asia to Japan and Polynesia. The name for the genus comes from the Greek words 'mikros' meaning "small" and 'lepis' meaning "scale" in reference to the small scale-like indusia (structure covering the spores) and the specific epithet comes from the Latin word 'strigos' meaning bristles.

We grew and sold this plant continuously since the late 1980s and have nice clumps of it in the nursery garden. 

The information displayed on this page about Microlepia strigosa is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.