Fern Friday: Hart’s-tongue

27 Friday Jan 2023

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Asplenium scolopendrium, British ferns, fern, Fern Friday, Hart's tongue

Perhaps, when I began these Fern Friday blogs, I should have started with the fern with the most basic shape, the one with the long simple leaf shaped, apparently, like the tongue of a deer (commonly called a hart in former days), the Hart’s-tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium). As it grows everywhere in Britain except in the colder far northern regions, and can be found draping stone walls, in woodland, under hedgerows, in roadside ditches, I’m sure this fern will be familiar to most of you.

230127 hart's-tongue fern

Hart’s-tongue has featured on this blog before, in particular because its glossy leaves provide a home to several species of leafminers, including these two Leafmines: Psychoides filicivora 3 January 2022 and Leafmines: Chromatomyia scolopendri 1 March 2021.

Fern Friday: Common polypody

06 Friday Jan 2023

Posted by sconzani in plants

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British ferns, Common polypody, Polypodium vulgare agg, Polypodium vulgare sensu lato

Fern Friday will be a very occasional series as I try to learn to identify the various fern species I encounter during my meanders. Common polypody is one I see quite often but it turns out not to be as straight forward as I was hoping. It seems that the various Polypodiaceae look very similar and require expert examination to be sure of their species. So, I’m lumping mine together as Polypodium vulgare sensu lato (i.e. broadly speaking, these are Common polypody).

230106 polypody (1)

As you can see, this specimen was growing on an old stone wall, acidic rocks and walls being their preferred habitat, though they can also grow as epiphytes on trees. The fronds of a fern are divided into pinnae (like leaflets): if divided just once, like the Common polypody, they are described as pinnate; if twice, they are bipinnate; if three times, tripinnate (further Fern Friday posts will show examples of these multi-pinnate species).

230106 polypody (2)

On the underside of a fern leaf the sorus (plural sori) can be found. The sorus is a small cluster of sporangia, where the spores the fern uses for reproduction develop. In the Common polypody, the sori, which are usually round, start off a pale yellow and change to an orangey brown when mature. You may recall that these sori are sometimes home to the larvae of a tiny moth, Psychoides filicivora (see my 19 December post, Leafmines: Psychoides filicivora,2).

Unfurling

30 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in plants, spring

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British ferns, fern frond, fern frond unfurling, ferns, signs of spring

’Tis that magical time of year when the woodland floor comes to life, with wildflowers blooming and the sap rising up to green the trees and the fronds of ferns slowly unrolling.

The curled up top of a young fern frond is called a crosier, sometimes a fiddlehead. When its first cells are touched by the warming sunlight of spring, they begin to grow; as they grow, they expand; as they expand, they lengthen; and as they lengthen, they unfurl.

210430 ferns unfurling (1)

There is perhaps no more powerful symbol of the reawakening of the land in springtime than a fern frond unfurling.

138/366 Ferns on walls

17 Sunday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, plants

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British ferns, ferns, ferns on walls, Hart's tongue, Maidenhair spleenwort, Rustyback fern, Wall-rue

200517 mixed ferns

I’m steering away from wildflowers this week in favour of something a little different. As I often walk along the back lanes to avoid close contact with the people walking on our narrow pavements, I’ve been noticing the lovely ferns that adorn the shadier sides of the old stone walls of people’s back gardens. These are the four species I’ve found so far.

200517 hart's-tongue

Hart’s-tongue (Asplenium scolopendrium)
The glossy, flat, undivided leaves of this fern make it the easiest to identify. Not surprisingly, the specimens I’ve seen growing on walls have been quite stunted compared to the large clumps I see in local woodlands.

200517 Maidenhair spleenwort

Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes)
I love the symmetry of this fern, which does very much resemble the Maidenhair houseplants I grew in times past, though they are a different species (Adiantum). It has also been a good lesson for me in fern structure – the small egg-shaped bits of green are not leaves – they are called pinnae, and the whole branch-like structure is, in fact, the leaf.

200517 Rustyback fern

Rustyback Fern (Asplenium ceterach)
Old walls and other ‘human-influenced habitats’ are where these ferns are found most often. Their name comes from the fact that the undersides of the pinnae look rust-coloured when their spores ripen.

200517 wall-rue

Wall-rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria)
As well as stone walls, this fern can be found growing in shady crevices on limestone rocks. Its name comes from its strong resemblance to the herb Common rue (Ruta graveolens).