Common Maidenhair - local native (Adiantum aethiopicum)

Family: Adiantaceae (Maidenhair family)

Rare. Recorded at Barkers Creek and along the water race at Elphinstone.

Native of Australia, NZ and South Africa.

Identification

• it is a prostrate ground cover
• the leaves (fronds) are rounded-triangular on very fine leaf-stalks (the maidenhairs).

Name. adiantum: from the Greek a: not; diantos moistened, the fronds are supposed to keep dry even if placed in water.