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.
Vittaria appalachiana
Appalachian shoestring fern is a small, rare fern native to the Appalachian Mountains, growing as a thin green gametophyte in dark, damp rock crevices. It is rarely cultivated and is best left in the wild.
Vittaria appalachiana, or the Appalachian shoestring fern, is a fern species in the subfamily Vittarioideae of the family Pteridaceae. It is native to moist and shaded outcrops in the Appalachian Mountains. It is notable for existing only in the gametophyte stage of development, unlike other fern species in which the sporophyte stage predominates. The species reproduces asexually through gemmae.
The species was known to bryologists, who at first confused it with a liverwort. Aaron John Sharp brought the species to the attention of pteridologists Warren H. Wagner and Alma Gracey Stokey. It was formally named by Donald R. Farrar & John T. Mickel in 1991.
Vittaria appalachiana grows in dense colonies in dark, moist crevices in non-calcareous rock. Habitats are usually dark and sheltered from extremes of temperature, and humidity; rock shelters and smaller cavities are favored. It occasionally appears as an epiphyte, growing on the bases of trees protected within narrow gorges. Populations have been found at altitudes from 150 to 1,800 meters (490 to 5,900 ft).
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vittaria appalachiana 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.
