Hare's foot fern
Davallia canariensis
Family · Davalliaceae · Harmless
The fern with a hairy rhizome that runs visibly over trunks and walls like an animal's paw. The fronds are leathery and much divided, and are shed in the dry summer.
Oak woods · Walls and rocks · Scrubland
Also known asdeersfoot fern, canary davallia
How to tell it
The rhizome is the mark: thick as a finger, creeping and covered in soft pale brown scales, exactly like a rabbit's foot, running over bark or stone instead of burying itself. Triangular leathery fronds, three to four times divided. Range: Madeira, the Canaries and the northwestern Peninsula.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
Traditional medicinal use as an infusion in the Canaries and Madeira, using the rhizome. Traditional use, in the past. It is widely sold as a houseplant precisely because of the hairy rhizome, which takes pressure off the wild populations.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.