Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Northern Maiden-hair Fern
Adiantum pedatum L.
- Family: Fern (Polypodiaceae)
- Spores: June-September
- Field Marks: This distinctive fern has purple-black leaf stalks and the leaf segments oblong and asymmetrical, with the upper edge of each leaf segment curved back over the spore-bearing structures.
- Habitat: Rich woods, rocky ledges.
- Habit: Erect perennial with slender rhizomes.
- Stems: All stems underground, rhizomatous.
- Leaves: Usually twice divided, formed along the upper side of a curved axis, each segment oblong and asymmetrical, usually with teeth and a few round lobes. thin and membranaceous, up to 1 inch long and up to 1 inch wide; stalks purple-black.
- Spores: Formed in a line along the upper edge of the leaf and covered by the recurved edge of the leaf.
- Notes: This fern derives its name of maidenhair from the leaf segments that have a
resemblance to the leaves of the maidenhair, or ginkgo, tree.
Previous Species -- Southern Maiden-hair Fern
(Adiantum capillus-veneris )
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