Wikimedia Commons
Aspleniaceae
Maidenhair Spleenwort
Asplenium trichomanes
Delicacy in strength and finding beauty in crevices.
- Family
- Aspleniaceae
- Genus
- Asplenium
- Native to
- worldwide (cosmopolitan)
- Bloom season
- Summer
- Type
- evergreen fern
- Height
- 10–20 cm
- Sunlight
- part shade to full shade
- Soil
- moist, well-drained, rocky, alkaline
- Water
- medium
- Hardiness
- 3–8
- Lifespan
- perennial; long-lived
Did you know
- As a fern, it does not produce true flowers — it reproduces via spores borne on the undersides of its fronds.
- The black, wiry stems (stipes) contrast beautifully with the small round green pinnae, creating a ladder-like pattern.
- It grows in cracks of limestone walls, cliff faces, and mortar joints where almost nothing else can survive.
- Medieval herbalists used it to treat spleen ailments, giving it the name 'spleenwort'.
- It is one of the most widespread ferns on Earth, found on every continent except Antarctica.
Color meanings
Green
persistent life in unlikely places