Adiantum capillus-veneris Underw

Brake Family

Native

Venus-Hair Fern

June Photo

Plant Characteristics: Rhizome creeping, slender, the scales thin, light brown, lance linear, entire; fronds +/- spaced, ascending to pendant, 2-7 dm. long, the stipes slender, almost black, to ca. as long as the blades; blades 1-4 dm. long, 2-3 times pinnate at base, the upper third once-pinnate, pinnules stalked, obovate to rhombic, 5-30 mm. long, cuneate at base, the margins converging at 45-90 degrees, the outer edge lobed or incised, with toothed margins; sori mostly oblong-lunate, solitary on the underside of the reflexed leaf margins, 1-2 mm. long.

Habitat: Calcareous seeps on rocky walls, etc., mostly below 4000 ft.; many Plant Communities; widely scattered in cismontane s. CA, occasional on the desert, Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Ids.; warmer regions of both hemispheres.

Name: Greek, a, without, and diaine, unwetted, referring to the shedding of rain drops. Latin, capillus, hair, and Latin, Veneris, the goddess of love. (Jaeger 45, 279). Venus-hair fern, possibly named because of the delicate pinnules. (my comment).

General: Rare in the study area as it is found in only one small area on a seeping bank below Eastbluff North; here it and A. jordanii are found. Today, 2006, there are a number of plants, many more than when I first found A. jordanii in 1995. (my comments). About 200 species, largely of tropical America. (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 25).

Text Ref: Hickman, Ed. 102; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 25.

Photo Ref: Oct.-March 05-06 #4,5.

Identity: by R. De Ruff.

First Found: October 2005.

Have plant specimen.

Computer Ref: Plant Data 562.

Last edit: 6/27/06.

June Photo June Photo