Adder's Tongue Fern

Adders tongue fern is a small, unusual fern found in damp grasslands and meadows across Europe, Asia, and North America, easy to overlook since a single plant produces just one broad, undivided leaf blade each year. From the base of that leaf rises a narrow, upright fertile spike lined with spore cases, whose shape gives the plant its common name. It lives in a close underground partnership with soil fungi that support the plant for much of its early life, and it can remain dormant beneath the soil for years without producing any visible growth at all.