Rob's plants home garden plants wildlife seed photos plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook Adiantum pedatum

 

Common name American maidenhair fern Family pteridaceae Life cycle perennial (Z3-8) Size 12-30" Light part-full shade Pretty fern native to eastern North America. Delicate divided fronds offset by reddish-brown to black stems. When I saw the plant in the state shown at right, in mid-May of its second year in our garden, I was reminded of a line in a famous Dutch poem by Marsman, in which the countryside is described as having "unthinkably thin poplars" ("ondenkbaar ijle populieren"). This fern is even unthinkably thinner!

I found the declining foliage (mid-November) to be curiously attractive

They look so vulnerable when the fronds first return in late April

We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston.

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Last modified: May 25, 2014
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