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.

Leafmines: Psychoides filicivora

03 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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British leafmines, Hart's tongue, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Hart's-tongue, moth larvae on Hart's-tongue, Psychoides filicivora

Once again, I was alerted to this little leafminer by a tweet from Rob Edmunds (@leafminerman), one of the brains behind the British Leafminers website, and I’ve now found it at three local sites where Hart’s-tongue fern (Phyllitis scolopendrium) is plentiful, though it can also be found on a couple of other fern species.

220103 Psychoides filicivora (1)

These are the larvae of Psychoides filicivora, a tiny brown moth (you can see the adult on the UK Moths website here), whose larvae munch on the fern fronds and hide away under little ‘nests’ of sporangia on the undersides of the fronds.

There is another very similar moth species that also lives on fern fronds, Psychoides verhuella – so far, I’ve only found P. filicivora – but the British Leafminers website has very good information on both, as well as an excellent side-by-side comparison image of their larvae.

Leaf mines: Chromatomyia scolopendri

01 Monday Mar 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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Agromyzidae, Chromatomyia scolopendri, Hart's tongue, leaf mine on Hart's tongue, leaf miners, leaf mines, leaf-mining fly larvae

Another week, another leaf mine – in fact, lots of mines in the glossy, lush leaves of Hart’s-tongue ferns (Asplenium scolopendrium).

210301 Chromatomyia scolopendri (1)

I have actually blogged about these before (Leaf mine in Hart’s-tongue, January 2018) but those finds were made in Somerset and I’m now finding lots of these mines in my local area in south Wales. The mines are made by the larvae of the fly Chromatomyia scolopendri, one of the Agromyzidae family of flies, and their long, winding gallery mines are unmistakeable.

You can read more about these flies on the newly launched Agromyzidae Recording Scheme website, and, if you’re interested in finding out which leaf mines to look out for and when, the scheme has a page that lists which species are most commonly recorded each month. Can you find Chromatomyia scolopendri mines in your area?

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).

Leaf mine in Hart’s tongue

16 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, plants

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Agromyzidae, Chromatomyia scolopendri, Hart's tongue, leaf mine on Hart's tongue, leafminers, leafmines

After my recent introductory post on leafminers, I thought I’d get the ball rolling with an example of a leaf mine I have actually been able to identify, as, fortunately for me, it is the only creature that creates a linear mine on the leaves of Hart’s tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium). The mines in my photographs were created by the larvae of a tiny fly, Chromatomyia scolopendri.

180116 Chromatomyia scolopendri (1)

As you can see, the larvae tends to mine along the midrib of the leaf but occasionally veers out towards the exterior before doubling back again. The mine is narrow and can be up to 10cms long, though I didn’t actually measure these ones. The larvae can be active any time from early spring through to autumn and they usually pupate in these mines.

180116 Chromatomyia scolopendri (2)

I found the mines on Christmas Eve, when I was on holiday in Somerset – they were at Ham Hill Country Park, near Yeovil. I’m not sure how common the little Chromatomyia scolopendri fly is, as there are 72 records showing in the Welsh Aderyn biodiversity database but only 38 records for the whole of Britain in the NBN Atlas (so where are all the Welsh records?). It’s also likely that leaf mines are under-recorded so the species may well be more common than these records suggest. Now that I know what to look for, I’ll be keeping an eye out for this one on my walks around south Wales.