Forked Spleenwort

The forked spleenwort, also called the northern spleenwort, is a fern of the spleenwort family Aspleniaceae ranging from the Macaronesian Islands through Europe and western Asia to northern India, western and central China and Taiwan, with a separate population in the Rocky Mountains and other ranges of western North America. Its long, slender, leathery leaf blades often fork at the tip and grow in dense, grass-like tufts from dark stems. It is epipetric, rooting in crevices of granite, limestone and shale cliffs and boulders, at elevations recorded up to nearly 2,900 meters in the United States.