Adiantum viridimontanum
A rare maidenhair fern that grows only on serpentine rock in southern Quebec, northern Vermont and Maine. It arose as a hybrid between the western and serpentine maidenhair (A. aleuticum) and the eastern woodland maidenhair, followed by a doubling of the chromosomes. It is a cold-hardy fern that dies back in winter, and it is harder to grow than either parent.
Where it grows wild
Thin soils over serpentine (ultramafic) bedrock: outcrops, talus, cliffs and ledges, roadcuts and abandoned or active asbestos mines, and forest edges. It also grows in hardwood forest influenced by serpentine, where magnesium-rich drainage changes the soil. It colonises recently disturbed serpentine sites where other plants have been removed, and spreads mainly by its branching rhizome.
Recorded at 117–774 m, median 177 m (15 records). It is a lowland and low-mountain fern.
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