Index- plants in this Family
Aspleniaceae / Spleenwort
Walking Fern (Asplenium rhizophyllum)
Plant Type: This is a fern, it is a perennial.
Leaves: The leaves are alternate. Leaves usually reach 20cm in length (8inches) sometimes longer. Leaves can be as wide as 2 cm (1inches). Each leaf is entire, long and slender. The tip is capable of rooting.
Flowers: No flowers
Habitat: Epipetric on limestone usually in damp places associated with moss. Sometimes epiphytic on downed trees.
Range: Common from south eastern Canada to as far south as Oklahoma and South Carolina.

      Color Photo     More Info      Classification


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The leaves (or laminae) can root at the tip spreading the plant and giving rize to the common name.

Similar Species: Asplenium scolopendrium L. var. americanum or American Hart's-tongue Fern (AKA Phyllitis scolopendrium var. americana, Hart's tonguefern) is similar but very rare known from only one county in Tennessee and one in Alabama and in a few locations in the North East and southern Canada. In the south it has been found only in sink holes and may have been lost from most locations where it once was known.



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More Info:  
The Search below may provide more information about this species. Some of URLs may have been used as a source for this page not otherwise cited. Most of the information not cited comes from multiple sources that can be found in the Books page. The USDA plant links are provided by: USDA, NRCS 1999. The PLANTS database (http://plants.usda.gov/). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA. You can check species names at ITIS Advanced Search to see if they meet the current ITIS taxonomic criteria.
 

By: Boughton Cobb and Illustrated by Laura Louise Foster. 1963, ISBN:0395194318

The relatively small number of ferns as compared to flowering plants make possible this book that is both a technical manual and portable field guide. The illustrated key is excellent and the pen and ink drawings of most species covered are, detailed, accurate and beautiful. A bibliography by states and regions is provided.



By: David B. Lellinger. , ISBN:0874746035

This exhaustive work describes over 400 species, subspecies and varieties and includes color photos for most. The author is the Curator of Ferns at the Smithsonian Institution and A Murray Evans, Professor of Botany at the University of Tennessee took the excellent photographs traveling all over North America to accomplish the task. If you want to know the ferns this is a must have book.



Classification:  
Kingdom
Pteridophyta
|Division
Pteridophyta
Fern
|Class
Filicopsida
|Subclass

|Order
Polypodiales
|Family
Aspleniaceae
Spleenwort
|Subfamily

|Tribe

|Genus
Asplenium
Spleenworts

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