Adiantum capillus-veneris

Fern of the Pteridaceae family, with a very wide distribution, present on all continents in warm temperate, subtropical, and tropical zones. In Europe, it is naturally present around the Mediterranean, in Macaronesia, and occasionally in mild Atlantic regions, where it colonizes humid rocky walls, caves, limestone seepages, old wet walls, and the edges of springs, always favored by high and constant atmospheric humidity.

It forms light and drooping clumps, reaching 20 to 40 cm in height, with a remarkably airy appearance. The fronds are finely divided, bipinnate to tripinnate, bearing fan-shaped pinnules, of a tender and translucent green, delicately cut into rounded lobes. The petioles and rachises are shiny black, filiform and glossy, which further accentuates the lightness of the whole and earns it its common names of Montpellier maidenhair or Venus hair.

The sori are characteristic of the genus: kidney-shaped to elongated, protected by pseudo-indusia formed by the folding of the pinnule edge, arranged in a marginal position.

In cultivation, it requires very high atmospheric humidity, a calcareous, fresh, and well-drained soil, in shade or deep shade, without drying out or cold drafts. It is not very hardy and is often grown indoors or in a temperate greenhouse in continental climates. Outdoors, it is suitable for sheltered Mediterranean gardens, shaded humid rockeries, and the vicinity of water points.