Species · genus Asplenium · Aspleniaceae

Maidenhair Spleenwort

Asplenium trichomanes L.

Growth habit

epiphyte or lithophyte

Native range

Amur, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Korea, Kuril Is., Manchuria, Nansei-shoto, Primorye, Sakhalin, Taiwan

Asplenium trichomanes — reference photo — no rights reserved · CC0

Cultivars of A. trichomanes

The named forms growers keep — each with its own page, each honest about how much we know.

No named cultivars catalogued under A. trichomanes yet. When growers document a stable, named form, it earns its own page here.

Guide

The species-level account. Cultivar pages build on this and say where they differ.

A small, hardy fern

Maidenhair spleenwort is a compact evergreen fern, growing to only about 15cm tall, with a neat rosette of dark green, pinnate fronds carried on blackish stems. It is at home tucked into a dry wall or shaded corner rather than dominating a border.

Source: RHS

Widespread native fern

This is a genuinely wide-ranging species, native across the temperate and subtropical Northern Hemisphere and even reaching the Hawaiian Islands. It is one of the ferns native to Britain and Ireland, and it grows as a perennial, often rooting into rock as a lithophyte rather than only in soil.

Source: Kew

Shade, moisture, shelter

Give this fern full or partial shade and a sheltered spot, whether facing north, east or west. It wants humus-rich soil that stays moist but drains well, with some added grit, and it is equally content in chalk, clay, loam or sand as long as the pH sits neutral to alkaline.

Source: RHS

Division or spores

Increase plants by division, or raise new ones from spores sown as soon as they are ripe, kept at around 15°C.

Source: RHS

Rosette of dark fronds

The fronds are pinnate, dark green, and made up of small, rounded or oblong segments set along blackish stalks, arising from creeping rhizomes in a tufted, clump-forming habit. A related selection, the Incisum Group, carries the same small-segmented look but with more deeply cut, incised leaflets.

Source: RHS

Largely trouble-free

Grown outdoors, this fern is generally free of pests and disease, which is one of its quieter virtues.

Source: RHS

Minimal pruning needed

There is little upkeep beyond removing dead or damaged fronds as they appear; otherwise the plant is left to its own tufted growth.

Source: RHS

Care recipe

The species record — the baseline every cultivar inherits unless it says otherwise.

Care notes are early — not yet verified

Light: ai:claude-opus-4-8
Water: ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 5-10d)
Humidity: ai:claude-opus-4-8
Soil: ai:claude-fable-5
Care: ai:claude-fable-5

Light

Medium light

Water

≈ every 10 days

Humidity

High

Temperature

5–21 °C

Soil mix

Gritty, well-draining mix with limestone; keep evenly moist

Propagation

Spores; division of small clumps

Fertilizing

Very dilute feed sparingly in spring and summer

Growth rate

Slow

Flowering

Never flowers — a fern, reproduces by spores

ToxicityAuthoritative · species

Not yet documented

This is where toxicity lives — every cultivar of this species inherits it and none can override it.

Reference images

Every image credited. Licenses link to their deeds.

Sources: ai:claude-opus-4-8 · ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 5-10d) · ai:claude-fable-5

Kept true by its growers

Every fact here carries its source. Grow Maidenhair Spleenwort yourself? What you’ve observed — how it drinks, how it holds its color, a name that’s off — and a clear photo of your plant are exactly what keep this page honest. Contributions are reviewed before anything changes.