#phyllitis

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Wednesday 15 February 2023

The hardy Phyllitis scolopendrium (Asplenium fern, hart's tongue fern, horse tongue) has been included in this glasshouse fernery. This evergreen fern forms a rosette of arching, strap-shaped fronds with margins that often undulate. Spores are borne in transverse stripes beneath the fronds.

Jill Raggett

[regnum-plantae]

Asplenium scolopendrum, Aspleniaceae

The Hart’s tongue fern is easily recognisable due to the undivided tongue-shaped fronds and the pattern of the sori, the clusters of sporangia, positioned on the underside of the leaves, which resemble the legs of a centipede, or scolopendra.

This fern is common in Europe, while American and Mexican varieties are not as widespread and are actually endangered. Here in Europe it is also grown as an ornamental and a few cultivars have been selected. They are often chosen for the American market too, as the Asplenium native to the New World is reportedly hard to maintain in cultivation successfully.  It is quite common here in Central Scotland and I’ve observed it in northern Italy before, I’ve always thought it gives the woods a tropical, prehistoric feeling somehow.