A Maiden for the Green Garden

or without and Diantos meaning wettable. Together, they mean not wettable and describe how the leaves appear dry after a rain. The species name comes from the Latin Pedātus, meaning with feet. Supposedly the two to nine individual leaflets or pinna that radiate from the horseshoeshaped stem resemble the shape of a bird’s foot.

From the very start of spring, Northern Maidenhair Fern provides delicate garden attributes with the appearance of its slender pink fiddleheads adorned with a scattering of silvery hairs. As it nears 3-6” tall, the stem divides into what will become two fronds, with each curling backward and creating an overall appearance of a horseshoe. As the fronds continue to grow, the entire stem or rachis transitions from pink to dark purple, resembling the slender dark hair of a young maiden and hence, the common name!

As the individual leaves or pinnae develop along the curving rachis, they initially hang down, looking for all the world like a series of delicate, dangling earrings. The pinnae become increasingly turgid as they expand and transition from dangling to a horizontal orientation. These pinnae vary in length from 2-7” long, with the longest pinnae found closest to the point where the stem splits into the two fronds and become progressively shorter near the tips of the rachis. Ultimately the plants reach 18-24” tall and over 24” in diameter, with each pinnae developing 8-50+ small individual leaflets called pinnules. Each pinnule is up to ½” wide and 1” long and bears a strong resemblance to a human foot – possibly another explanation for the species name! The fall color is a bronzy-yellow and the stems quickly collapse following heavy frosts.

Unique to the genus Adiantum, certain pinnules develop into fertile spore-releasing organs called sporophylls. They are marked by the lobes of the pinnules curling down and backwards into a flap that covers the spore releasing sori. These flaps, botanically called indusiums, are challenging to see from above for the uninformed and typically go unnoticed. For the informed, these indusium are relatively easy to spy since the distal or outward facing margin of the pinnules lack the typical dentate leaf margin and the edge