Rustyback fern

Asplenium ceterach

Family · Aspleniaceae · Harmless

Traditional use

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.

Where it grows

Walls and rocks · Uplands · Oak woods

Also known as

scaly spleenwort

In flower

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.

Sources

Flora-On