Leatherleaf ferns are circum-austral, native to the tropics around the Southern Hemisphere. The fronds arise alternately from a stout stolon that creeps along just at or under the soil, that is, those of Africa or South America. But the fern does something unusual in New Zealand and Australia. It climbs trees and particularly tree ferns.

In Florida during the 1950s, the production of leatherleaf fronds joined the growing industry of cut foliage usually called 'florists' greens'. Easy to cultivate, the fronds were long-lasting as the name, seven-weeks, suggests. (Actually, once cut, the fronds only last about ten days to two weeks.) Forty-two acres of the ferns were under cultivation in 1956.

By 1996, 4,686 acres of Florida were put to use growing leatherleafs. The fronds bring in somewhere around $65 million to the Florida economy and only three counties—Orange, Seminole, and Lake—supply most of the world's floral industry with the fronds.

(Compiled from: Encyclopedia of Ferns, David L. Jones, Timber Press, Portland, OR, 1987; "Cut Foliage Production", Robert H. Stamps, Mid-Florida Research and Education Center—Apopka, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, no date; and "Foliage, Floriculture and Cut Greens", State Statistical Report 97FOL1, Florida Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA)