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Asplenium ebenoides
Also called Dragon Tail Fern
Scott's spleenwort is a small, evergreen rock-dwelling fern and a sterile hybrid of walking fern and ebony spleenwort, grown for its irregular, dark-stemmed fronds. It needs moist, well-draining mix and high humidity to thrive.
Asplenium × ebenoides (Scott's spleenwort, dragon tail fern or walking spleenwort) is a hybrid fern native to eastern North America, part of the "Appalachian Asplenium complex" of related hybrids. The sterile offspring of the walking fern (A. rhizophyllum) and the ebony spleenwort (A. platyneuron), A. × ebenoides is intermediate in morphology between its two parents, combining the long, narrow blade of A. rhizophyllum with a dark stem and lobes or pinnae similar to those of A. platyneuron. While A. × ebenoides is generally sterile, fertile specimens with double the number of chromosomes are known from Havana Glen, Alabama. These fertile allotetraploids were reclassified as a separate species named A. tutwilerae in 2007, retaining the name A. × ebenoides for the sterile diploids only.
The hybrid nature of A.
The plant is sometimes cultivated as a greenhouse or garden ornamental. Recommendations for best growth include moist potting mix, or soil enriched by rock chips. It prefers medium light and high humidity. The A. × ebenoides sold commercially, if grown from spores, is the fertile form, now A. tutwilerae. It has recently achieved wide-spread distribution in garden centers as "Dragon's-Tail Fern".
Asplenium × ebenoides is endemic to eastern North America from Alabama in the south to New Hampshire in the north and Missouri and Arkansas in the west. Its distribution is scattered, running along the Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont and down the Ohio Valley into the Ozark Mountains, although it has also been found on the Coastal Plain of Virginia. All occurrences fall within the overlap of the two parental ranges, although A. × ebenoides is not known to extend as far north and west as its parents. The allotetraploid form, now A. tutwilerae, has so far only been found in Hale County, Alabama.
Bird’s Nest Fern · Hen And Chickens · Spleenwort · Singlesorus spleenwort · Hawai'I birdnest fern · Hart's tonguefern · Maidenhair Spleenwort · Spleenwort
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Asplenium × ebenoides 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.
