Hart's-tongue fern is an evergreen fern whose fronds are single, undivided, glossy straps—unusual for a fern—thought to resemble a deer's tongue. In North America it is a rare plant of shady limestone woods and sinkholes, found in the U.S. in only a handful of places. The European form, on the other hand, is a popular garden fern.
Appearance
- Growth form
- An evergreen fern with fronds growing in a clump from a short rootstock.
- Leaves
- Undivided, strap-shaped fronds with a heart-shaped base. They are leathery, glossy, smooth-edged, and stay green all winter.
Look-alikes
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Shady limestone woods
- Sinkholes
- Caves
- Range
- Widespread across the temperate Northern Hemisphere, including Europe, North Africa, and East Asia. North American populations are rare and scattered: in the U.S. they occur in central New York, Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula, northeast Alabama, and Tennessee, and a population was discovered in New Mexico in 2020. Most North American plants grow in southern Ontario, and there are also populations in Mexico.
- Preferred conditions
- Needs shade, steady moisture, and lime-rich rock or soil, usually under hardwood trees. In full sun it grows stunted and yellowish. In the Southeast it grows on limestone in sinkholes and caves.
Life cycle
- Reproduction
- Narrow lines of run across the underside of the frond at right angles to the midrib, like rungs on a ladder.
Growing it
- Care
- Garden plants almost always come from the European , and many cultivars have ruffled, forked, or crested fronds. The American subspecies is hard to grow.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Some older books call it Phyllitis scolopendrium. Botanists split it into three subspecies: the European one (scolopendrium), the American one (americanum), and an East Asian one (japonicum).
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
- Status
- The American subspecies has been federally listed as threatened since 1989, mainly because of trampling, logging, quarrying, and development of its habitat, and reintroduction programs are being developed in New York. In Alabama it is ranked among the state's rarest plants.
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- The species name scolopendrium comes from the Greek word for centipede, because the rows of spore cases look like a centipede's legs.
- In the 1800s the plant was used in folk medicine as a tonic for the spleen—the same old belief behind the group's common name, spleenworts.
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