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Wilson's Filmy Fern

Hymenophyllum wilsonii

Wilson's Filmy Fern
Photo: Richtid, CC BY-SA 4.0

Wilson's filmy-fern is a small, fragile, perennial fern that spreads into dense colonies from creeping rhizomes, native to damp, shaded, humid places in western Europe and Macaronesia. It needs very humid, shaded, moist conditions, which makes it demanding to grow outside its native habitat.

Family
Hymenophyllaceae (Hymenophyll family)
Grows as
Fern, Perennial
Light
Shade, Part shade
Water
Keep the rhizomes and fronds consistently moist, using soft water and never letting it dry out.
Soil
Fine, moisture-retentive, acidic mix such as peat-based or fibrous compost, often grown on moss or rock.
Temperature
Cool to mild, about 10–20 °C; protect from frost and from heat above about 24 °C.
How easy
Hard
Native range
Macaronesia, N. & W. Europe
Climate
temperate

About

Hymenophyllum wilsonii, the Wilson's filmy-fern, is a small, fragile, perennial leptosporangiate fern which forms large dense colonies from creeping rhizomes.

Where it grows

Confined to western Europe (Britain, Ireland, France, Norway, Spain and The Faeroes) and Macaronesia.

Other Hymenophyllum plants

Hymenophyllum alveolatum · Austral Filmy Fern · Hymenophyllum bivalve · Hymenophyllum brachypus · Creeping Filmy Fern · Hymenophyllum cristatum · Hymenophyllum cruentum · Common Filmy Fern · Drooping Filmy Fern · Hymenophyllum dilatatum · Falkland Filmy Fern · Fan Like Filmy Fern

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hymenophyllum wilsonii 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.

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