Annual fern
Anogramma leptophylla
Family · Pteridaceae · Harmless
The only fern in Europe that lives for a single year: it germinates with the autumn rains, grows through winter, sheds spores in spring and vanishes completely in summer. While other ferns last decades, this one fits in one season.
Walls and rocks · Streams and ditches · Oak woods · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known asJersey fern
How to tell it
Tiny, three to fifteen centimetres, in loose tufts in the cracks of damp banks and shaded stone walls. The fronds are very pale green, delicate and divided into fan-shaped segments, and the outer fertile ones are larger and more dissected than the inner. Look from January to April; in July there is nothing there.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use. It indicates damp shaded banks that do not dry out in winter.
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.