University of Florida researcher Ken Langeland goes over a map of infestation sites of Old World climbing fern with Marian Bailey of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wednesday 11/10. Old World climbing fern, or Lygodium microphyllum, is taking over wilderness areas of South Florida and has increased a hundred-fold over the past six years in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, where Bailey works. Bailey and Langeland surveyed the fern's damage from a helicopter recently and said it looks like the fern has overtaken about 20,000 acres of the refuge. Langeland, an invasive plant specialist with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, says Lygodium is the worst invasive plant in Florida's wild areas to date because of how fast it smothers and kills native vegetation.(AP Photo: Thomas Wright, University of Florida/IFAS) IFAS Print News Releases