The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Adiantum capillus-veneris

Etymology

Adiantum: From the Greek a- 'without, lacking' and diantos 'moistened', the fronds of this fern are supposed to remain dry after submersion in water
capillus-veneris: From the Latin capillos 'hair' and Venus, the goddess of love, meaning Venus' hair

Common Name(s)

European maidenhair

Authority

Adiantum capillus-veneris L.

Family

Pteridaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

Structural Class

Ferns

Distribution

Naturalised. New Zealand: North Island (Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Bay of Plenty and Wellington).

Habitat

Mostly urban in shaded sites on concrete and mortar or in wasteland on calcareous substrates. Often on shaded clay banks and overhangs - especially on limestone, calcareous sandstone and other marine sourced sedimentary rocks.

Features

Tufted, terrestrial fern. Rhizome short-creeping, suberect, branched, to 5 mm diameter; scales concolorous, yellow-brown, with entire margins. Fronds tufted, to 360 mm long. Stipe to 180 mm long, glossy, glabrous, brittle. Lamina 50-200 × 40-150 mm, light green to yellow-green, 2-3-pinnate, deltoid, delicate, membranous. Pinnae rectangular or elliptic; rachis flexuous, wiry. Pinnules ovate to deltoid, shortly stalked throughout, symmetric and cuneate-flabellate or subdimidiate, glabrous; distal margins irregularly and deeply lobed, denticulate when sterile; stalks not articulated; veins red-brown near junction with stalk, otherwise pale. Sori 1-10 along distal margins, 1 or 2 per lobe; soral flaps oblong to subreniform, not or scarcely indented into lamina margin, glabrous. Spores 64 per sporangium pale brown; perine scabrous; largest diameter (43-)48.1(-60) microns.

Similar Taxa

Distinguished from the other Adiantum indigenous or naturalised in New Zealand by the ultimate segments flabellate, and stalked centrally, and by the reflexed oblong, entire (without notching) indusia

Flowering

N.A. Spore producing

Flower Colours

No Flowers

Fruiting

N.A. Spore producing

Propagation Technique

Easily grown and widely cultivated through the warmer parts of New Zealand. Does best in a lime-enriched, damp soil ins shaded conditions. Often self-establishes, especially on mortar within brick walls and around concrete steps.

Endemic Taxon

No

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

Year Naturalised

1981

Origin

subtropical and warm temperate regions

This page last updated on 9 Mar 2015