Floating Fern Ceratopteris pteridoides These interesting tropical, aquatic ferns are found in ponds and lakes in many parts of the world, including North America. Floating Fern, is an edible plant from South America. It is found growing wild in Florida, along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. This plant produces dense rosettes of pale green, floating, sterile fronds that are buoyed up with internal air pockets. The leaves have a wavy margin and are egg shaped to triangular and can have 3 to 5 lobes. Taller, much-divided, larger, fertile fronds stand upright in the center of these. Viviparous buds form in the notches of the leaf margins. The plants are easily propagated. C. thalictroides, commonly called Water Fern, Water Sprite, or Water Hornfern, is a native to Madagascar and eastern Asia. This species is grown in Japan as a spring vegetable. This plant sometimes roots into the mud. It grows from 21 to 30 inches above the water and produces two types of light green fronds; one kind is deeply divided and fertile and the other kind is parsley-like and sterile. Buds form in the notches of the fertile fronds and produce new plantlets. Back to Floating Plants Page