Lemon Button Fern

The Lemon Button Fern is an adorable, vibrant, and lemon-scented fern that looks beautiful in any room. It’s becoming a popular houseplant due to its hardiness and benefits. This easy-to-care-for plant doesn’t require much work, but there’s still some important information to keep in mind if you want it to thrive properly.

What is a Lemon Button Fern?

The Lemon Button Fern is a wood fern that thrives in woodland areas with plenty of shade. It’s native to the pantropical regions of Asia, Australia, the West Indies, Florida, Central America, and South America. It’s also known as the Fishbone Fern and the Southern Sword Fern (and Nephrolepis Cordifolia in Latin, of course).

This beautiful indoor houseplant has light green leaves. The small oval-shaped leaves create a pleasing, soft pattern that makes them an immediate centerpiece of any room. This plant also gives off a fresh lemon-like scent during active growing months. Despite its eye-catching looks and pleasing scent, this plant is easy to care for and not very picky.

Plant Size

This plant gets its name from its size. It’s as small as a button! The Lemon Button Fern usually doesn’t get any larger than one foot. Because of their size and shape, plant enthusiasts often keep the Lemon Button Fern in a hanging basket.

Light Requirements

Used to woodland environments, this plant thrives in shaded areas. This easy-going plant can tolerate indirect light, low light, medium light, and even bright light, making it a very adaptable plant. But shade is definitely their favorite!

Watering Requirements

There is no strict watering schedule for this particular plant. If you already have an established water schedule for your other plants, this hardy fern will adapt to it quite fine! It will look vibrant and beautiful no matter if it gets a lot of water or very little.

Your Lemon Button Fern may not have a desired watering schedule (watering whenever the top of the soil is dry is okay), but it does have a water preference. It prefers bottled water, which has the highest mineral content but few impurities.

Temperature and Humidity

While the Lemon Button Fern doesn’t require a strict watering schedule, this plant does like to be misted regularly. This will mimic the humidity it loves in the woodlands it’s native to. You can also provide it with a humidifier nearby.

The Lemon Button Fern prefers warmer temperatures, usually around 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. While it does love heat, make sure it’s not near a furnace or fireplace. These can dry out the air and take away the humidity this fern needs to thrive properly.

Why Choose a Lemon Button Fern for Your Home?

The obvious reason to pick this luscious plant is its glorious appearance. It’s a soft, lovely green and the round leaves on each stem are adorable. At only 12 inches, it can easily fit into any room. But while small, the Lemon Button Fern will make an impact and stand out among your decor.

But this fern won’t only LOOK beautiful. It SMELLS wonderful, too! This plant gives off a lemon scent during the growing season. The smell of lemon can leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, meaning you’ll always want a Lemon Button Fern nearby when you wake up.

It can also restore moisture in the air and rid your home of harmless toxins. This means this evergreen fern has air-purifying properties that will keep you healthy and feeling refreshed. If you have dry skin or a sore throat, the Lemon Button Fern can improve your ailments.

Keeping a Lemon Button Fern near your workspace can have you feeling focused. It’s said that having a plant around can increase your activeness, improve your mood, and inspire creativity. You’ll feel more productive with one of these fresh, vibrant ferns around.

Lemon Button Fern Plant Family Relatives

The Lemon Button Fern is the smaller relative of the Boston Fern. The Boston Fern is another popular houseplant that has much more specific needs. This fern needs high humidity and indirect light. You should also place its pot on a tray of pebbles filled with water and mist your plant twice a week.

Unlike the unfussy Lemon Button Fern, the Boston Fern requires its soil to always remain damp. They will die if their soil is dry. You should even soak the Boston Fern once a month to make sure the peat moss in its pot is fully hydrated. Let it drain after.

The Western Sword Fern is a classic fern that also loves the shade. It’s a versatile perennial fern found throughout North America. With dark green foliage, this vigorous plant thrives with moist soil (so water it weekly or more) and in a location with filtered sun.

The Western Sword Fern is known for its medicinal uses. Its stem and leaves are used to treat skin sores. It’s also used to wash the scalp to reduce dandruff.

Final Thoughts – Lemon Button Fern

The Lemon Button Fern is a small plant with minimal care requirements. You don’t have to water it a lot (or you can if you want to!). It doesn’t have to pick a particular soil. You don’t have to choose a specific pot. You don’t even need to keep it in specific lighting.

No matter what, your Lemon Button Fern will thrive — and provide you with a delicious, refreshing lemon scent.

This plant has a surprising amount of benefits for such a simple plant. Even though you can put in minimal effort to keep the Lemon Button’s happy, the evergreen plant will provide fresh air, better focus, and a lovely atmosphere in any room.

This is one plant you’ll love to have hanging around!