Riparium Plant: Adiantum sp. maidenhair fern

[hydrophyte]

I am trying out a new plant that seems to have promise for riparium culture, Adiantum sp. "maidenhair ferns". I picked up this good-sized potted plant the other day at a local garden center.



There are quite a few maidenhair fern species and varieties in cultivation, but the label on this just indicated "maidenhair fern". We have a native Adiantum here in the Northern US (A. pedatum), but it doesn't really grow in wet situations. I have run into references for other different maidenhair ferns that describe wet habitats such as the margins of small, stony streams, so there should be some that are good candidates for growing in ripariums. If I get any good results from it I will try to figure out which species/variety it might be.

If it grows right this plant could be a good addition to a lower light setup with mosses and crypts and other ferns. My 55-gallon setup might be a good spot for it.



I will plan to pot it up in a riparium planter and see what happens.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
They are very difficult to put a definitive name to, there are lots of species and they all look very similar (although A. pedatum for example is distinct). They don't like water on their fronds or waterlogged compost, and they are mainly much more drought resistant than they would appear. They don't tend to get on very well with bright light either (although this may not be the case at high humidities), so they may be a bit of a challenge to situate. I would tie the rhizome mass onto bark, tree-fern or a peat block as that may keep the roots damp, but not waterlogged. There used to be a lot of plants and sporelings grow under the mist unit in the glasshouse here, where they received very diffuse lighting, and had dry foliage and water constantly seeping through the gravel plunge bed above them. They also spread into the mortar of the brick work where it was constantly wet.
cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Thanks Darrel. Those are useful observations. I have looked aorund and seen that there are indeed a number of species and varieties in cultivation. It appears as though there have been a number of cultivar selections from A. capillus-veneris, and this plant looks like the pictures that I have seen of that one online.

Check out this habitat photo...

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/4391/

 

[Nelson]

i've never managed to keep these alive as house plants 🙁 .but have seen them growing in crevices on rock faces whilst rafting in nepal.they were mainly shaded and getting covered in spray.don't know what species they were though.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
They are some very interesting photos, A capillus-veneris is a rare plant in the UK, and grows as one or 2 very delicate growing fronds and lots of dead fronds and is found in cracks in the limestone pavement in W. Ireland, and in seeps on limestone sea cliffs in S. Wales etc. looking like this.

so very different to your lush specimens by the river in the photo.

The "frilly edges" of the pinnules on your house plant looks like the plant sold as "Adiantium tenerum".

your plant should have pinky new growth if it is A. tenerum:

cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Thanks Neil and Darryl, Darryl I do not see pink coloration in the new fronds. They are green. The pictures that i have seen of A. capillus-veneris look more like my plant to me. Do you have any opinions with this other more detailed shot of frond from my specimen?



I also got some more detailed shots to show how I potted these plants up. For three plants I used planters filled mostly with Hydroton, and with a cap of finer gravel.



For two of these I also included a layer of marine crushed seashell substrate. Many of the references on Adiantum that I encountered indicated that they grow best in "sweet" (alkaline, high pH) soils, and that they benefit from the addition of powdered lime to the potting medium. I figured that the crushed shells could act as a slower-release source of hardness minerals for the root environment in the pot.

While I have not seen any mentions of Adiantum actually growing as aquatic marginals, some of these these ferns do apparently have an affinity for permanently saturated spots on rock faces or the edges of small streams. Have a look at the habitat for A. capillus-veneris in the final picture of this linked page, described as "a continually wet limestone face covered with maidenhair fern"...

http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/bio406d/images/pics/pte/adiantum_capillus-veneris.htm

While the potted plant roots will be below the water's surface in the riparium, rather than growing along the face of wet stone, I hope that this condition will be close enough to the kinds of natural habitats that many maidenhair fern species prefer.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I'm not sure at all with name, they all look very similar. The other possibility would be an A. raddianum cultivar. I think your planter and hydroton/gravel/shell will be fine as a growing system & substrate. I'm not sure it will matter which species it is, my suspicion would be that the rhizome sections that are permanently immersed will die, but it may well be able to survive in the emersed section. When I've seen A. capillus-veneris growing on hard wet limestone rocks (Carboniferous age ("Pennsylvanian" in the US)) the rhizomes have followed the seepage zones, but have been epilithic with the rhizome visible on the rock surface.
cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Darrel,

Thanks again. Did those Adiantum rhizomes that you observed creep in a manner similar to the habit of Java fern or Bolbitis fern? When I divided this plant, the rhzomes seemed to be more "clump-forming" (not sure of best term here). For maidenhair ferns that might grow like that it would probably be better to plant on a riaprium trellis raft, which is the method I use for those other ferns and Anubias.

 

[TBRO]

Thought I might pick the brains of some emergant plant pros! Could I grow carnivourous plant like venous fly trap on a very moist but emergent WK ball. Was thinking of growing it with UG? A big problem I find is my emergent get dried out really easy under halogen desk lamps and sunlight does not result in much growth this time of year, any suggestions for growing in small glass vases?

 

[Ed Seeley]

Thought I might pick the brains of some emergant plant pros! Could I grow carnivourous plant like venous fly trap on a very moist but emergent WK ball. Was thinking of growing it with UG? A big problem I find is my emergent get dried out really easy under halogen desk lamps and sunlight does not result in much growth this time of year, any suggestions for growing in small glass vases?

If you do then plant it in pure peat or a peat/perlite mix and do not put any ferts in the tank. VFTs will often die if fed IME (and I've killed more than my fair share!).

Edit: Forgot to say that to get a good ID of a fern species beyond the generic level you really need to inspect the sporophytes underneath the fronds and possibly even look at the spores under a microscope.

There's a few of the species listed here! http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20o?guide=Ferns

 

[TBRO]

Thanks for pointing that out Ed, I think UG needs similar conditions. Sorry about the hijack - T

 

[Garuf]

Email the guy from triffids. I've spoken to him and he's very very knowledgeable regarding more or less everything carniverous.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Yes Ed is right you need to inspect the shape of the "indusium" (black bits on the back of the leaves) and spore shape for a definitive I.D. for a lot of ferns, unfortunately this isn't a great help with Adiantum sp.
The internodes of rhizome is much shorter in Adiantum than Bolbitis etc, so it forms much more of a clump. I'd probably try taking rhizome bits from the edge of the clump to plant on the flat planters. Bolbitis heteroclita or Selaginella sp. would be very suitable for your rafts as they are good terrarium plant (but hopeless submersed)

A lot of insectivorous plants (like Venus fly trap., most Droseras, Pinguicula, Darlingtonia) need a cooler, drier winter rest, and becauseof this are unsuitable (unless you can drop the water level?) but a lot of the Utricularia species can be grown warm and wet, as suggested a look at a carnivorous plants list should give you some suggestions, mine would be Utricularia sandersonii, if that won't grow conditions are probably unsuitable for any carnivorous plants. Again as Ed said chemical fertilisers tend to be unsuitable unless very dilute mainly because the plants are adapted to very low nutrient conditions.

cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Thanks again for all of the information you guys!

I think that these Adiantum divisions might be making a real recovery. Most of them have grown a couple leaves.



They also appear to be doing some sort of fern-sexual-reproduction-thing-that-I-don't-understand. There are a few little strange heart-shaped things (arrow) growing in the planters and I wonder if they might be new gametophytes (?) that started from spores dropped by the original leaves(?). I remember learning fern reproduction back in botany class, but that was ages ago 🙂 .

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Divisions look like thay have "taken", also it does look like it might be the gametophyte stage on the raft, it should look a bit like a "liverwort" (Monoselenium) , and the new frond (sporophyte) will eventually grow from it's surface (you may be able to see the antheridia and archegonia with a magnifying glass or macro lens).
cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Thanks again Darrel. I think you are right that they are probably gametophytes. I should try to get some close-ups with the macro lens. One of the planters has quite a lot more of them there on the surface of the gravel.

 

[hitmanx]

Sorry for drudging up this 9 years old thread, but I have some relevant info to add about my success with this plant in my riparium...
I always assumed it was A. pedatum bit i could be wrong... it may be Adiantum raddianum...



I added this plant to a hair net filled with sphagnum moss and draped that over an emersed log so the water pulls up into the roots... it sat like that for a long time and has since exploded and thrived under high light and humidity ranging from 35 to 60%



The roots span out into the water taking up about 1 square foot of space... the moss hairnet has been waterlogged this whole time... the rhizome is massive and is expanding in all directions...

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I always assumed it was A. pedatum bit i could be wrong... it may be Adiantum raddianum..

It definitely isn't A. pedatum, that has distinctive leaves. Most of the others look pretty similar, and either A. raddianum, or A. tenerum, is most likely.

cheers Darrel

 

[zozo]

your plant should have pinky new growth if it is A. tenerum:

I'm growing an A. raddianum at the time and this one occasionaly also shows pink growth.. In my case occasionaly s becuse it recieves a lot of day light that varies in intensity and likely spectrum.. And experience this fern if placed wet is rather light sensitive. It doesn't like it beeing wet if light is to low, mine has troubles during the winter and lots of leaves die off, but it survives. From spring time on it starts to grow again and mid summer it grows pinkish leaves too.. I bought it as a raddianum cultivar. Forgot which one.. I've red somewhere that more Adiantums have this pink pottential, likely depending on given conditions.

adiantum capillus-veneris seemingly is the smallest of its kind.. And unfortunately most difficult to find.. Likely because its the most demanding and difficult to cultivate Adiantum as well.. Searched for it a long time and only could find spores for sale from Indonesia.. I once ordered but never recieved the package. 🙁

 

[mort]

I've got one of the species but don't know which exact one. It grows really well with a huge root mass under water but from time to time I see a lot of dead leaves before new growth spurts occur.
When it is in growth it produces a mass of new leaves and really takes over quickly.