Adiantum Capillus-Veneris

Adiantum capillus-veneris, known as the maidenhair fern, southern maidenhair fern, black maidenhair fern, or Venus hair fern, is a fern in the family Pteridaceae with a subcosmopolitan distribution across humid warm temperate to tropical regions of western and southern Europe, Africa, Asia as far as Japan, Australasia, and the Americas from the southern United States to South America. It grows 15 to 30 centimeters tall from creeping rhizomes, with delicate light green fronds divided into small pinnae and a characteristic black, wiry rachis, favoring moist, shaded sandstone or limestone. It is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN and Secure by NatureServe overall, though it is endangered in North Carolina and threatened in Kentucky because of habitat loss.