Maidenhair fern
Adiantum capillus-veneris
Family · Pteridaceae · Harmless
The most delicate fern in our flora, growing only where water trickles permanently: well walls, springs, seeping rock faces. If it is there, the water never stops, not even in August.
Walls and rocks · Streams and ditches · Uplands
Also known asVenus hair fern, common maidenhair
How to tell it
Thin, black, glossy stalks like hair wire, which is where the name comes from. Fan-shaped, pale green leaflets with a cut margin, attached at one corner only. Water runs over it without wetting the leaf, which repels water completely.
What it is confused with
Maidenhair spleenwort
Asplenium trichomanes
The names get mixed up and both have a black axis. True maidenhair has fan leaflets attached at one corner and lives only on wet rock; maidenhair spleenwort has round paired leaflets and lives on dry walls.
Open sheet →What it is for
It was among Europe's most sold medicinal plants, the base of capillaire cough syrup, made with sugar and maidenhair water. Today its value is different: it is an infallible indicator of a permanent spring, and the places it grows are water points worth marking on a map.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.