About

Adiantum viridimontanum, commonly known as Green Mountain maidenhair fern, is a fern found only in outcrops of serpentine rock in New England and Eastern Canada. The leaf blade is cut into finger-like segments, themselves once-divided, which are borne on the outer side of a curved, dark, glossy rachis. These finger-like segments are not individual leaves, but parts of a single compound leaf. The "fingers" may be drooping or erect, depending on whether the individual fern grows in shade or sunlight. Spores are borne under false indusia at the edge of the subdivisions of the leaf, a characteristic unique to the genus Adiantum.

Until 1991, A. viridimontanum was grouped with the western maidenhair fern, A. aleuticum, which grows both in western North America and as a disjunct on serpentine outcrops in eastern North America. At one time, A. aleuticum itself was classified as a variety (A.

Where it grows

Adiantum viridimontanum is narrowly distributed in New England and Quebec. At least seven stations in Vermont lie in the Missisquoi Valley, in the northern Green Mountains, giving the fern its common name. The ultramafic rocks of this area extend northwards into Quebec, where as of 2001, eight stations were known in southern Quebec and six in the Thetford Mines area. It is also known from one station on serpentine on Deer Isle, Maine.

Other Adiantum plants

Adiantum aethiopicum · Adiantum alarconianum · Aleutian maidenhair · Adiantum amblyopteridium · Maidenhair fern · Bermuda Maidenhair Fern · Common maidenhair · Tailed maidenhair · Chilean Maidenhair Fern · Adiantum ciliatum · Polished maidenhair · Cunningham's Maidenhair