''Adiantum atroviride'', commonly known as maidenhair fern, is a plant in the family

Pteridaceae Pteridaceae is a family of ferns in the order Polypodiales, including some 1150 known species in ca 45 genera (depending on taxonomic opinions), divided over five subfamilies. The family includes four groups of genera that are sometimes recogni ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Australia and occurs in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Description

''Adiantum atroviride'' is a small fern with a short creeping or somewhat erect

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

with dark brown to black triangular scales. The fronds are about long, loosely clustered, with shiny black stipes and

rachis In biology, a rachis (from the [], "backbone, spine") is a main axis or "shaft". In zoology and microbiology In vertebrates, ''rachis'' can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this case the ''rachi ...

es. The laminae are 2- to 4-pinnate, the ultimate divisions are flabellate (fan shaped), up tp long, with shallow lobes on the distal margin. There are between 1 and 7 round to kidney shaped sori on the distal margins, usually at the base of a deep narrow

sinus Sinus may refer to: History * a sac in front of body worn into a toga, in the typical style of wearing it Anatomy * Sinus (anatomy), a sac or cavity in any organ or tissue ** Paranasal sinuses, air cavities in the cranial bones, especially those ...

between lobes.

Taxonomy

''Adiantum atroviride'' was first described by the Australian botanist Peter Dundas Bostock, and published in

Flora of Australia The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 21,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, ...

in 1998. Prior to that it was considered to be a variety of '' A. aethiopicum''.

Etymology

The genus name ''Adiantum'' comes from the Ancient Greek '' adíantos'' meaning wet, and is a reference to the way the laminae shed water. The

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) ...

''atroviride'' is from the Latin ''ater'' for black, combined with ''viridis'' (green), referring to the black stipes and green foliage of the plant.

Distribution and habitat

This species occurs rarely in

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...

in the Northern Territory, but is common on the east coast of Australia, from the

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, �zen̪ad̪ kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, ...

all the way to southeastern

. It is a terrestrial fern inhabiting dry to medium dry vine forest and sclerophyll forest on a variety of soils.

Conservation

This species is listed by Queensland's

Department of Environment and Science The Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation is a department of the Queensland Government which is responsible for protecting the state's natural environment, developing the government's tourism, science and innovation str ...

as special least concern, a ranking that is unique to Queensland and is placed in between

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

and

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

Cultivation

This is a popularly cultivated fern, valued for its ornamental qualities.

Gallery

File:Adiantum atroviride 111010070.jpg, Habit File:Adiantum atroviride 211068120.jpg, File:Adiantum atroviride 134913524.jpg, File:Adiantum atroviride 211068196.jpg, File:Adiantum-atroviride-SF22215-02.jpg, Sori on laminae

References

External links

* *
View a map
of historical sightings of this species at the

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgama ...

View observations
of this species on

iNaturalist iNaturalist is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit social network of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe. iNaturalist may be accessed via its web ...

View images
of this species on Flickriver {{Taxonbar, from=Q17117860 atroviride Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Flora of the Northern Territory Plants described in 1998