Diplazium proliferum (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Vegetable
Ornamental
Food security

Diplazium proliferum (Lam.) Thouars

Protologue: Esquisse fl. Tristan d’Acugna: 35 (1808).

Family: Dryopteridaceae

Chromosome number: 2n = 82

• Asplenium proliferum Lam. (1786),
• Callipteris prolifera (Lam.) Bory (1804),
• Diplazium accedens Blume (1828),
• Callipteris accedens (Blume) J.Sm. (1841),
• Athyrium accedens (Blume) Milde (1870).

• Mother fern (En).

Diplazium proliferum is widespread in tropical Africa, from Guinea to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea (Bioko), São Tomé et Principe, DR Congo and Madagascar.

In Madagascar the young still enrolled fronds (croziers, fiddleheads) are eaten as a cooked vegetable. In South-East Asia the croziers as well as the bulbils present on the rachis are eaten boiled or steamed as a vegetable, or raw as a salad. Diplazium proliferum is widely planted as an ornamental.

The related Diplazium esculentum (Retz.) Sw. is the most important fern used for human food in the world. It does not occur in Africa.

• Large fern with erect rhizome covered with brown scales at apex.
• Leaves slightly leathery, clustered at apex of rhizome, producing bulbils and young plants all over the rachis; petiole 3–60 cm long, straw-coloured; lamina 60–200 cm long, pinnate; pinnae numerous, lanceolate, the lower ones slightly reduced, median pinnae alternate, 6–7 cm apart, shortly petiolate, 15–20 cm × 3–5 cm, truncate at base, apex abruptly narrowed into a long tip; lobes of pinnae rounded or emarginate at apex, denticulate; bases of pinnae proliferous, with young plantlets on the upper side.
• Sori linear, in a characteristic V-shaped arrangement following all veinlets of the lobes, usually 4–5, but up to 7 especially in West Africa.
• Indusia linear, attached along the vein.
• Spores with a few long folds above a papillate inner perispore.

Diplazium is often placed in Woodsiaceae, sometimes in Athyriaceae, families which are included in Dryopteridaceae here. Some authors propose placing Diplazium in Thelypteridaceae. The genus is closely related to Athyrium, from which it would differ by only one chromosome (n = 40 and n = 41 respectively) even though the chromosome number n = 41 is not consistent in Diplazium. Diplazium proliferum and related species with anastomosing veins are sometimes placed in a separate genus Callipteris.

Diplazium proliferum grows in Raphia thickets and marshes.

Diplazium species are easily grown from spores. The bulbils can be detached and placed in the soil for rooting, or they can be left on the plant to develop into plantlets which can be simply detached and planted.

Diplazium proliferum is widespread and does not seem to be endangered. Although it is widely cultivated as an ornamental, it is not cultivated for use as a vegetable. No germplasm collections are known.

No special culinary merits are known of Diplazium proliferum and it seems unlikely that it has the potential to be grown and traded at a commercial scale. Its use as an ornamental remains important.

• Burkill, H.M., 2000. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 5, Families S–Z, Addenda. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 686 pp.

• Decary, R., 1946. Plantes et animaux utiles de Madagascar. Annales du Musée Colonial de Marseille, 54e année, 6e série, 4e volume, 1er et dernier fascicule. 234 pp.

• Hovenkamp, P.H. & Umi Kalsom, Y., 2003. Diplazium Swartz. In: de Winter, W.P. & Amoroso, V.B. (Editors). Plant Resources of South East Asia No 15(2). Cryptogams: ferns and fern allies. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands. pp. 96–99.

• Johns, R.J., 1991. Plant portrait: 178. Diplazium proliferum. Woodsiaceae. Kew Magazine 8(3): 128–133.

• Stevenson, D.W., 1984. Pedagogical ferns: Diplazium proliferum. Fiddlehead Forum 11(2): 10.

• Alston, A.H.G., 1959. The ferns and fern-allies of West Tropical Africa. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. 89 pp.

• Burrows, J.E. & Burrows, S.M., 2001. New distribution records of southern African Pteridophyta. Bothalia 31(2): 205–207.

• Faden, R.B., 1973. Some notes on the gemmiferous species of Asplenium in tropical East Africa. American Fern Journal 63(3): 85–90.

• Holttum, R.E. & Roy, S.K., 1965. Cytological observations on ferns from New Guinea with descriptions of new species. Blumea 13: 129–139.

• Jones, D.L., 1998. Dryopteridaceae. Flora of Australia 48: 393–418.

• Manton, I., 1959. Cytological information on the ferns of West Tropical Africa. In: Alston, A.H.G. (Editor). The ferns and fern-allies of West Tropical Africa. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. pp. 75–81.

• Tardieu-Blot, M.L., 1964. Athryriaceae. Flore du Gabon. Volume 8. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. pp. 144–148.

• Tryon, A.F. & Lugardon, B., 1990. Spores of the Pteridophyta. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany. 648 pp.

• W.J. van der Burg, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

van der Burg, W.J., 2004. Diplazium proliferum (Lam.) Thouars. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands.

Accessed 3 April 2025.