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Adiantum capillus-veneris
Also called Maidenhair Fern, Southern Maidenhair, Venushair, Venus' Hair-fern, Black maidenhair, Venus' hair, Australian maidenhair fern
A delicate fern with wiry black stems and light green, fan-like fronds, grown outdoors in shade gardens and widely as a houseplant. The key to success is steady humidity and consistently moist, never soggy, roots.
Adiantum capillus-veneris, the maidenhair fern, southern maidenhair fern, black maidenhair fern and venus hair fern, is a species of ferns in the genus Adiantum and the family Pteridaceae with a subcosmopolitan worldwide distribution. It is cultivated as a popular garden fern and houseplant.
Adiantum capillus-veneris is cultivated and widely available around the world for planting in natural landscape native plants and traditional shade gardens, for outdoor container gardens, and commonly as an indoor houseplant.
Adiantum × mairisii is a winter hardy hybrid of Adiantum capillus-veneris with another species, which is likely to be one of Adiantum raddianum, Adiantum aethiopicum, or Adiantum cuneatum.
Adiantum capillus-veneris is native to humid warm temperate to tropical regions globally. It occurs in western and southern Europe (north to southern Scotland, where its northernmost sites are found), much of Africa, the Levant and across Asia to Japan, in Australasia, and in the Americas in the southern half of the United States from California to the Atlantic coast, through Mexico and Central America, to South America. There are two disjunct occurrences in the northern part of North America, at Cascade Springs in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Fairmont Hot Springs, British Columbia. In both instances, the warm microclimate created by hot mineral springs permits the growth of the plant far north of its normal range. It is similar in Zvonce spa resort (Звоначка Бања, Zvonačka Banja), near Pirot in Serbia, where hot mineral springs provide adequate heat and humidity for the survival of this species.
Adiantum aethiopicum · Aleutian maidenhair · Adiantum formosum · Rough maidenhair · California maidenhair · Silver Dollar Maidenhair Fern · Delta maidenhair · Himalayan maidenhair fern · Maidenhair fern
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Adiantum capillus-veneris by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
