Adiantum capillus-veneris | Southern maidenhair fern

A few weekends ago, New Years Eve weekend to be exact, we stopped by Westcave Preserve on our way home. We’d been by there a year before but did not have time to go in. I will have more on Westcave itself in two later posts, but this one is specifically about the beautiful maidenhair fern.

The fern grows in all sorts of rocky outcroppings, and other nooks and crannies along the creek at Westcave. The creek flows maybe a quarter of a mile before emptying into the Pedernales River.

It really makes pathways it lines a magical place.

The Texas Vascular Plant Checklist lists one other species for Texas, Adiantum tricholepis or the hairy maidenhair fern. A Google search of that species is very intriguing and now I would love to see it. The USDA plant database has it listed as only existing in Medina county here in Texas…and only in Texas in the U.S.!

I almost think it is my favorite fern, and yet I saw a photo of a giant leather fern on Flickr the other day and I was reminded of how much I love them too. I think I just love ferns!