Sunday, February 20, 2011



California maiden-hair
Adiantum jordanii
Pteridaceae

If I had a garden of my dreams, this is the one native fern I would definitely include. I suspect it would require quite a bit of moisture and could be challenging to grow in an artificial setting. That's Garland's waterfall in the background of the third photo, which had water running after a week of decent rain. Interestingly enough, this is not CA's only maiden-hair fern; there's another called southern maiden-hair (Adiantum capillus-veneris) that looks a lot like cilantro, the herb staple of many salsas.

5 comments:

phyte club katie said...

Love this one. It also does well as a houseplant for those shadier spots, at least, until we all get our dream garden....

John W. Wall said...

Beautiful fern. I always love to find them in the wild. As indoor plants they always seem to need more TLC than I can deliver....

troutbirder said...

I too love this delicate fern and have, with some difficulty, tried to incorporate it into my mostly shady native wildflower garden. It grows but slowy and doesn't spread much like the other ones.

Susan Ellis said...

It's such a beautiful fern..I've a fern garden, but this is one that definitely prefers a warmer climate! Lovely photos!

Brad said...

I bet you could grow it in a shady part of your dream garden. We have it here in the Oakland/Berkeley hills I believe. I don't know if it goes dormant in the summer or what.