Rustyback fern
Asplenium ceterach
Family · Aspleniaceae · Harmless
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The small wall fern that rolls up its fronds and looks dead in summer, and unrolls again within minutes on a rainy day. The underside is gold with scales, which is where the name comes from.
Walls and rocks · Uplands · Oak woods
Also known asscaly spleenwort
How to tell it
A small leathery frond divided into alternating rounded lobes, green above. Turn it over: the underside is covered in rust-coloured scales overlapping like tiles. Always in a rock crevice.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
A traditional infusion in Iberian folk medicine, and a reference plant for drought resistance: it survives by losing almost all the water in its cells and recovers when wetted.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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