The extremely thin leaf blade of these ferns (very similar to the Filmy Ferns) restricts their habitat to very cool, constantly damp, deep mountain gullies. These conditions are very difficult to imitate easily in cultivation, although they do grow quite readily from spore, and small plants can be grown in a terrarium. (Spore, as with many Osmundaceae, is quite green when ripe and in this species is usually released from lower pinnae even before the frond has fully unfurled. When the sporangia appear orange or brown, the spore has already been released. Despite many references to spore of Osmundaceae being viable for a few days only, I have grown Leptopteris fraseri successfully from spore over three weeks old.)
The distribution of Leptopteris fraseri in the wild is quite limited. The only place I have seen it is in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, just inland from Sydney, where it is actually fairly common.
Other species of Leptopteris include:
L. alpina (from Papuasia) and L. wilkesiana (Fiji), both apparently very similar to L. fraseri.
L. hymenophylloides and L. superba, much smaller species from New Zealand
(and also a probable hybrid, L. X intermedia)
L. laxa (Solomon Is)
L. moorei (Lord Howe Island ... trunk 20-30 cm, fronds 0.5-1 m)
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