Adiantum pedatum (Northern maidenhair fern)

Adiantum pedatum L.

Northern maidenhair fern

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Pteridophyta	Ferns
Class	Filicopsida	“Leptosporangiate” (has to do with how their spores form) ferns—includes most ferns
Order	Polypodiales	Polypod ferns
Family	Pteridaceae	Ferns that grow on rocks (mostly)
Genus	Adiantum	Maidenhair ferns
Species	pedatum	Like a bird’s foot, with divisions radiating from a single point

About plant names...

Northern maidenhair fern is native to North America. It prefers rich, moist, well-drained wooded slopes, ravine bottoms, and rock faces with a lot of moisture. Note: The photos from Ice Glen in Stockbridge MA look more like southern maidenhair fern than northern. But southern maidenhair fern is well outside of its natural range here, and a list of Ice Glen species includes the northern variety, so I have tentatively assumed that these photos are the northern. Personally I think they are central maidenhair fern. Okay ... kidding ... but it is very likely that this fern is one of the other 250, barely documented species of Adiantum.

Plants: Plants are deciduous, 12-30" (30-75 cm) tall. Stems are reddish-brown to black and wiry; roots are also wiry, and black.

Leaves: Fronds are 8-20" (20-50 cm) long.

Fruits: Spores are found on the outer edges of spore-bearing pinnae, and may cause the edges to fold.

Online References:

Adiantum pedatum on the New England Wildflower Society’s GoBotany site

Adiantum pedatum on the Connecticut Botanical Society's Connecticut wildflowers site

Adiantum pedatum at the Missouri Botanical Garden

Adiantum pedatum at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

References:

Cobb, Boughton, Farnsworth, Elizabeth & Lowe, Cheryl, Peterson Field Guides: A Field Guide to Ferns and Their Related Families of Northwestern and Central North America, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005, p. 54

5/15/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts
≈ 15 × 10" (39 × 26 cm)

Semi-crested form. · 5/22/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts
≈ 17 × 12" (44 × 29 cm)

5/15/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts
≈ 21 × 14" (52 × 34 cm)

9/1/2017 · Worcester Road, Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, New Hampshire
≈ 12 × 8" (31 × 20 cm)

This more closely resembles Adiantum capillus-veneris, but is outside of its range. · 10/17/2016 · Ice Glen, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
≈ 5 × 5" (13 × 12 cm) ID is uncertain

Semi-crested form. · 12/12/2020 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts

6/22/2017 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts
≈ 15 × 10" (39 × 26 cm)

Adiantum pedatum description by Thomas H. Kent, last updated 25 May 2020.

This more closely resembles Adiantum capillus-veneris, but is outside of its range. · 10/17/2016 · Ice Glen, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
≈ 7 × 5" (16 × 12 cm) ID is uncertain

5/15/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts
≈ 8 × 5" (19 × 13 cm)

5/15/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts
≈ 17 × 12" (44 × 29 cm)

6/12/2016 · Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Worcester Road Trail

5/15/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts
≈ 14 × 9" (35 × 23 cm)

This more closely resembles Adiantum capillus-veneris, but is outside of its range. · 10/17/2016 · Ice Glen, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
≈ 7 × 5" (18 × 13 cm) ID is uncertain

6/22/2014 · Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, New Hampshire
≈ 19 × 12" (47 × 31 cm)

6/22/2014 · Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, New Hampshire
≈ 15 × 10" (37 × 25 cm)

6/12/2016 · Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Worcester Road Trail

Range: Zones 3-8:

About this map...