Adiantum viridimontanum, commonly known as Green Mountain maidenhair fern, is a rare fern found only in outcrops of serpentine rock in New England and Eastern Canada. It is one of four species endemic to serpentine in eastern North America and is considered globally threatened due to its habitat restrictions. It thrives on sunny, disturbed areas where ultramafic rock is covered with thin soil, such as road cuts, talus slopes, and asbestos mines.
About Adiantum viridimontanum in brief
Adiantum viridimontanum, commonly known as Green Mountain maidenhair fern, is a rare fern found only in outcrops of serpentine rock in New England and Eastern Canada. The leaf blade is cut into finger-like segments, themselves once-divided, which are borne on the outer side of a curved, dark, glossy rachis. Spores are borne under false indusia at the edge of the subdivisions of the leaf, a characteristic unique to the genus Adiantum. It is one of four species endemic to serpentine in eastern North America and is considered globally threatened due to its habitat restrictions. It thrives on sunny, disturbed areas where ultramafic rock is covered with thin soil, such as road cuts, talus slopes, and asbestos mines. It can generally be separated from A. pedatum by the shape of the ultimate segments, and by its habitat on thin, exposed serpentine soils rather than in rich woodlands. It has since been located in Quebec and in one site on serpentin in coastal Maine. A. viridimonteanum is difficult to distinguish from its parent species in the field. Its fronds range from 30 to 75 cm in length from the base of the Leaf stalk to the tip. The fingerlike pinnae are pinnately divided into short-stalked pinnules. They are usually described as having a Rachis that forks into two branches, which curve outwards and backwards.
Several pinnaes grow from the outerside of the curve of each rach is branch, with the longest pinnaE located closest to the fork of the rachIs. In fact, these species are not pedate, but pseudopedate in the fact the junction between the two curving branches is a forkis. That basal pinna makes up one of the first two branches; the remainder of that curving branch is made up of the other basalpinnae. Therefore they appear structurally similar, even though they are even though the longest and most central fingerlike segment represents the tip of the frond, while the other two shorter fingerlike segments are immediately immediately on it are on the other side of the branch, which is the other base of a branch. The species is a medium-sized, deciduous, terrestrial fern,. about 2 feet wide and 1 to 2 feet high. The frond is divided into a series of leaflets, known asPinnae, and the pinnaa are further divided into pinnule. The shape of these fronds is very similar to those of other Adiantums, but they are different in shape and size. The most common way to identify the species is to look at the shape and length of its leaf stalk, which can be found in the Green Mountains in Vermont.
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This page is based on the article Adiantum viridimontanum published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
