Bird's-nest fern is a common name applied to several related species of ferns in the genus Asplenium

Asplenium

Asplenium is a genus of about 700 species of ferns, often treated as the only genus in the family Aspleniaceae, though other authors consider Hymenasplenium separate, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences, a different chromosome count, and structural differences in the rhizomes...

. They grow in a tight, nest-like clump with a lingulate leaf rosette and are usually epiphytic, growing in trees. Bird's-nest Fern may also be seen growing on rocks and they will grow in the ground, too.

The best-known species is A. nidus

Asplenium nidus

Asplenium nidus is a species of fern in the family Aspleniaceae, native to tropical southeastern Asia, eastern Australia, Hawaii, Polynesia, Christmas Island, India, and eastern Africa...

; others include A. australasicum

Asplenium australasicum

Asplenium australasicum is a species of plant in the Aspleniaceae family found in eastern Australia.-Taxonomy:Asplenium australasicum was originally described by English botanist John Smith in 1857 as Neottopteris australasica. He had reclassified the already known A. nidus in its own genus...

(crow's-nest Fern), A. antiquum

Asplenium antiquum

Asplenium antiquum is a fern of the group known as bird's-nest ferns. In Japanese it is known by ō-tani-watari and tani-watari. *DistributionThe fern is native to temperate East Asia, in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan...

and A. serratum

Asplenium serratum

Asplenium serratum, the Bird's nest spleenwort and Wild birdnest fern, is a fern native to Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States...

(wild bird's-nest Fern).