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Asplenium rhizophyllum
Also called Walking Fern Spleenwort
Asplenium rhizophyllum, the (American) walking fern, is a frequently-occurring fern native to North America. It is a close relative of Asplenium ruprechtii (syn: Camptosorus sibiricus) which is found in East Asia and also goes by the common name of "walking fern".
It was introduced into cultivation in England in 1680. It prefers low to medium light levels, and a moist, basic potting mix, or soil with added lime chips.
The principal range of A. rhizophyllum is in the Appalachian Mountains and the Ozarks. It can be found from southern Quebec and Ontario along the Appalachians and Piedmont southwestward to Mississippi and Alabama, along the Ohio Valley and into the Ozarks west to Nebraska and Oklahoma, and along the Mississippi Valley north to Wisconsin and Minnesota. It has become extinct in Maine and Delaware. It is also presumably extinct in Texas, where one collection from the 19th century has been discovered. The distribution typically follows area of limy soil; sometimes said to be rare, it is better described as locally abundant where conditions favor it.
Black spleenwort · Asplenium aequibasis · Egyptian spleenwort · Asplenium anceps · Bird’s Nest Fern · Asplenium appendiculatum · Asplenium arcanum · Fern · Asplenium attenuatum · Eared Spleenwort · Bird's Nest Fern · Azorean Spleenwort
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Asplenium rhizophyllum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
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.
