Adiantum hispidulum Sw.

Rough Maidenhair Fern; Rosy Maidenhair Fern; Garden Maidenhair

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Rosy Maidenhair Fern is an introduced herbaceous plant in the Maidenhair Fern family (Pteridaceae). It is native to southern India, east Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and some Pacific Islands. It the United States it has been reported as escaping in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, and Louisiana. In Alabama, it has been collected in the southern half of the state. It has been found on steep roadsides, on stream banks, in cracks in brick buildings, and as a weed in greenhouses. Rosy Maidenhair Fern is a frost sensitive perennial from a short creeping rhizome. The fronds (leaves) are 1-1.5 feet in height. Leaves are petiolate and 1-4 pinnate or pseudopedate. The petioles are pubescent. The pinna are lanceolate in outline, and divided into fan shaped pinnules with serrate or crenate margins. The leaves are pinkish or bronze when young and dark green when mature. Spores are produced in sporangia grouped into round sori along the margins of the pinnules. The sori are covered by a false indusium cloaked in reddish brown stiff hairs. Rosy Maidenhair Fern is available from nurseries. It is a slow growing species that is more tolerant of sun and dry conditions than most other Maidenhair species. It prefers a marl or limey soil and can be grown in cracks in rocks. It is listed as an invasive species in Hawaii.--A. Diamond

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Not Native

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