''Adiantum pedatum'', the northern maidenhair fern or five-fingered fern, is a species of fern in the family Pteridaceae, native to moist forests in eastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Like other ferns in the genus, the name maidenhair refers to the slender, shining black

stipes Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

Description

''A. pedatum'' grows tall, and is deciduous.

Taxonomy

''Adiantum pedatum'' was described by Linnaeus in ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial names and was the ...

'' in 1753 (the official starting point of modern botanical nomenclature). He referred to earlier descriptions, all based on material from eastern North America. Linnaeus' own herbarium contains one specimen, collected by Pehr Kalm. Specimens collected in Unalaska and Kodiak Island by Chamisso and Langsdorf were referred to as ''Adiantum boreale'' by Presl in 1836, although he did not provide a species description to accompany the name. Ruprecht, in 1845, called the Alaskan material ''A. pedatum'' var. ''aleuticum'', and created var. ''kamtschaticum'' for material collected in Kamchatka by Carl Merck and Pallas. In 1857, E. J. Lowe noted that Wallich and Cantor had collected the species in northern India, and that material from the western United States ranged as far south as California. It was one of the many species cited by

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...

as disjunct between Japan and both the eastern and western United States. By 1874, Hooker & Baker reported it as present in both Japan and Manchuria. Several species have been segregated from the former ''A. pedatum'', '' sensu lato''. These include '' A. aleuticum'', '' A. viridimontanum'', '' A. myriosorum'', and '' A. subpedatum''. These all have fronds distinctively bifurcated and with pinnae on only one side.

Habitat

It grows in a variety of habitats, but generally favors soils that are both

humus In classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter. It is rich in nutrients and retains moisture in the soil. Humus is the Lati ...

-rich, moist, and well-drained. It grows both in soils and on rock faces and ledges when adequate moisture is present.

References

Bibliography

External links

''Adiantum pedatum'' in the Linnean herbarium
pedatum Ferns of the United States Ferns of Canada Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Least concern flora of the United States {{pteridaceae-stub