Common varieties of maidenhair fern

Adiantum fanleaf

The leaves are fan-shaped to irregularly broadly ovate, with 2 to 3 palmate branches to bird-foot-shaped dichotomous branches; the central pinnae are the largest, and the pinnae have short petioles. The fan-leaved maidenhair fern prefers an environment with plenty of sunlight and is suitable for growing in acidic red and yellow soil.

Adiantum whipleaf

Also known as the bristle maidenhair fern, its leaves are linear-lanceolate, about 10 to 25 cm long, with the top extended into a whip shape and taking root on the ground. The whip-leaf fern grows under forests or in rock crevices in stream valleys at an altitude of 100-1200m.

Adiantum spheniscus

The leaves are triangular in width and pinnately divided, with rhombus or oblong lobes. The wedge-leaved maidenhair fern often grows on limestone beside flowing streams or at the bottom of limestone caves and on dripping rock walls, at an altitude of 100-2800 meters.

Adiantum sutchuenensis

The maidenhair fern is a relatively rare species. Due to the destruction of nature by human production activities, the environment on which it depends for survival no longer exists. Because the lotus leaf fern is a good medicinal material, over-exploitation has put it on the verge of extinction and the number of cultivated fern is relatively small.