Southern Maidenhair fern
Adiantum capillus-veneris
Characteristics
- Environment - Moist and very wet limestone bluffs and creek edges.
- Fronds - Zig-zag stem (rachis) with alternating fan shaped leaflets.
- Leaves - Lobed, fan shaped.
- Rachis - Zig-zag, black with no scales visible.
- Spores - Spore cases openly spaced out along the leaflet edges.
Often found in masses growing on wet vertical limestone bluffs and ledges.
General form of a frond showing the distinctive zig-zag stem and leaflets.
Hairless (glabrous) stem with short petioles and glabrous leaflets. Note the distinctive leaflet shapes.
Spores and indusia along the edge of the leaflets.
Leaflets after the spores are gone showing the indusium remnant.
Ferns Gallery
