Narrow sword fern

Sword ferns are tropical and subtropical ferns that produce long, narrow, once-divided fronds made up of many small overlapping leaflets. Grown worldwide as houseplants, they thrive in warm, humid, shaded spots and spread by wiry runners, often forming small tubers underground.

• Sword ferns spread by thin wiry runners called stolons that can pop up new plantlets well away from the parent.
• Nephrolepis cordifolia stores water and starch in small fuzzy underground tubers, earning it the nickname 'tuber ladder fern'.
• The Boston fern, one of the most popular houseplants ever, arose as a chance sport in a shipment of sword ferns sent to Boston in 1894.

Care
Keep the soil evenly moist and the air humid, and give it bright indirect light rather than direct sun to avoid crispy frond tips.