Maidenhair Fern

Adiantum pedatum

General: Delicate, palmately branched; leaves few or solitary from stout, scaly rhizomes, but form colonies in suitable habitats.

Leaves: Lustrous, dark brown to purplish-black, erect stipes 15-60 cm tall, the top of the leaf stalk divided into 2 and these divisions divided again; blade 10-40 cm across, set nearly at right angles to the leaf stalk, more or less parallel to the ground; each leaflet with oblong or fan-shaped ultimate segments smooth and flat on the lower margin and cleft into ragged, rectangular lobes on the upper margin.

Ecology: Shady, humus-rich sites in moist, often rocky forests, on stream-banks, cliffs and in the spray zone of waterfalls; low to middle elevations.

Source: Pojar's Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 1994