Adiantum pedatum
Adiantum capillus-veneris
adiante du Canada, five-fingered fern, northern maidenhair, northern maidenhair fern
black maidenhair fern, common maidenhair, southern maiden-hair, southern maidenhair fern, Venus hair, Venus hair fern, Venus's-hair fern
short-creeping;
scales bronzy deep yellow, concolored, margins entire.
short-creeping;
scales golden brown to medium brown, concolored, iridescent, margins entire or occasionally with single broad tooth near base.
lax-arching (rarely pendent), closely spaced, 40–75 cm.
lax-arching or pendent, closely spaced, 15–75 cm.
1–2 mm diam., glabrous, occasionally glaucous.
0.5–1.5 mm diam., glabrous, occasionally glaucous.
fan-shaped, pseudopedate, 1-pinnate distally, 15–30 × 15–35 cm, glabrous;
proximal pinnae 3–9-pinnate;
rachis straight, glabrous, occasionally glaucous.
lanceolate, pinnate, 10–45 × 4–15 cm, glabrous, gradually reduced distally;
proximal pinnae 3(–4)-pinnate;
rachis straight to flexuous, glabrous, not glaucous.
oblong, ca. 3 times as long as broad;
basiscopic margin straight;
acroscopic margin lobed, lobes separated by narrow incisions 0–0.9(–1.1) mm wide;
apex obtuse, divided into shallow, rounded lobes separated by shallow sinuses 0.1–2(–3.7) mm deep, margins of lobes crenulate or crenate-denticulate.
various, generally cuneate or fan-shaped to irregularly rhombic (plants in American southwest occasionally with segments nearly round), about as long as broad;
base broadly to narrowly cuneate;
margins shallowly to deeply lobed, incisions 0.5–7 mm, occasionally ± laciniate, sharply denticulate in sterile segments;
apex rounded to acute.
transversely oblong, 1–3 mm, glabrous.
transversely oblong or crescent-shaped, 1–3(–7) mm, glabrous.
mostly 34–40 µm diam. 2n = 58.
mostly 40–50 µm diam. 2n = 120.
stalks 0.5–1.5(–1.7) mm, dark color entering into segment base.
stalks 0.5–3.5 mm, dark color extending into segment base.
Adiantum pedatum
Adiantum capillus-veneris
Once considered a single species across its range in North America and eastern Asia, Adiantum pedatum is considered to be a complex of at least three vicariant species (A. pedatum and A. aleuticum occur in North America) and a derivative allopolyploid species (C. A. Paris 1991). Adiantum pedatum in the strict sense is restricted to deciduous woodlands in eastern North America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
No evident pattern to morphologic variation in the species is discernible, although a number of segregate species and infraspecific taxa have been recognized within North American Adiantum capillus-veneris. In the Eastern Hemisphere, the species is diploid, with 2n = 60 (I. Manton 1950). Several tetraploid counts have been reported from North America (W. H. Wagner Jr. 1963). Spore-measurement data suggest, however, that the polyploid cytotype may not be widely distributed. Further investigation is needed to determine whether Adiantum capillus-veneris populations in North America are conspecific with those in Eurasia and Africa.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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