The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Vandenboschia speciosa
Vandenboschia speciosa, synonym Trichomanes speciosum, commonly known as the Killarney fern, is a species of fern found widely in Western Europe. It is most abundant in Ireland, Great Britain, Brittany, Galicia, Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores, but is also found in other locations including France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. It is a relict endemic European species with a disjunct distribution, having had a much wider distribution before the climate changes of the Tertiary and Quaternary periods.
This fern has an unusual life cycle, with a perennial gametophyte phase with an active vegetative reproduction. The gametophyte has the ability to tolerate darker and drier habitats than does the sporophyte. The sporophyte form is found in only 16 locations in the UK although the gametophyte form is more widespread.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vandenboschia speciosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
