Nephrolepis are strictly warm climate ferns—subtropical and tropical. Best guesses estimate somewhere between 10 and 30 species of sword ferns; a single genus in its own family, the Nephrolepidaceae.

Macho fern is native to South Florida where it is usually, but not always, found in moist and shady hammocks. But loss of habitat in Florida has placed the macho fern on the threatened species list. This fern, though, is not threatened throughout its range for it is a wide ranging species—the West Indies, Mexico, Central America and South America, South Africa, Southeast Asia, and even some of the Oceanic and Pacific Islands.

Though we seldom consider ferns as anything more useful than ornamentals, two uses are recorded. In Papua New Guinea, the crosiers (unfurled fronds) were cooked and eaten as pot herbs. In Micronesia, the fronds were used to repel cockroaches.

(Compiled from: "Nephrolepis", Hortus Third, Staff L.H. Bailey Hortorium, NY State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan, NY, 1976; Encyclopedia of Ferns, David L. Jones, Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, 1987; "Loss of Language is Loss of Culture?" D.Lee Ling, College of Micronesia, COMFSM; and "3. Nephrolepis biserrata", Flora of North America, FNA Vol. 2, Efloras.)