Species
+

Adiantum capillus-veneris L.

Black Maidenhair, Capiler, Echter Frauenhaarfarn (DE); Maidenhair Fern (EN), Maidenhair Fern

Climate known 70 photographs Fern or moss
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Adiantum capillus-veneris, the maidenhair fern, southern maidenhair fern, black maidenhair fern and venus hair fern, is a species of ferns in the genus Adiantum and the family Pteridaceae with a subcosmopolitan worldwide distribution. It is cultivated as a popular garden fern and houseplant.

Text from Wikipedia, “Adiantum capillus-veneris”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Adiantum

Adiantum, the maidenhair fern, is a genus of about 250 species of ferns in the subfamily Vittarioideae of the family Pteridaceae, though some researchers place it in its own family, Adiantaceae. The genus name comes from Greek, meaning "unwetted", referring to the fronds' ability to shed water without becoming wet.

Text from Wikipedia, “Adiantum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Pteridaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland +159
Wild records
1720 in range· 671 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
828mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 94 mm (CHELSA)
Light
13–44DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a fern or moss by the genus Adiantum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 828 mm a year, wettest October at 94 mm, driest July at 39 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 5 °C (archetype minimum for a fern or moss, above the 1.3 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Adiantum affine Willd.; Adiantum africanum R.Br.; Adiantum australe Riddell; Adiantum capillaceum Dulac; Adiantum capillus Sw. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a fern or moss by the genus Adiantum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (625 mm of 828 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 15.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and September to November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 828 mm a year, wettest October at 94 mm, driest July at 39 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

828 mm a year at the habitat, 625 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month October at 94 mm, driest July at 39 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 439 mm to 1687 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 5 °C (archetype minimum for a fern or moss, above the 1.3 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.3 °C, the absolute minimum -5.0 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -2.1 °C to 12.8 °C), warmest day 26.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 1.3 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a fern or moss (grouped by the genus Adiantum, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 5 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 11 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Jul; mean night from 3 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 828 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1419 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -5.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-5.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 13–44RH 57–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1419 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C11 / 6–1812 / 7–1915 / 10–2217 / 12–2620 / 16–2824 / 19–3127 / 21–3227 / 21–3224 / 19–3019 / 15–2615 / 10–2211 / 7–19
Night °C3 / -2–134 / -1–136 / 1–148 / 4–1512 / 8–1915 / 11–2218 / 13–2318 / 13–2315 / 11–2112 / 7–188 / 2–165 / -1–14
Rain mm72 / 29–14461 / 28–13663 / 31–13472 / 28–14072 / 14–15653 / 6–16739 / 3–16350 / 6–16179 / 19–17094 / 34–17087 / 31–17286 / 28–168
DLI15 / 9–2420 / 15–3029 / 23–3635 / 29–4339 / 33–4743 / 33–5044 / 34–5039 / 31–4531 / 25–3822 / 17–3116 / 10–2513 / 8–22
RH %60 / 55–6659 / 55–6458 / 54–6458 / 53–6359 / 52–6458 / 50–6557 / 48–6658 / 49–6659 / 52–6561 / 55–6561 / 54–6561 / 55–66

Each figure is the median across the 1419 grid cells holding the 1677 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1060:3538 (36.975, -3.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1419 distinct grid cells holding the 1677 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1060:3538 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.00_-3.125, lapse-corrected -262 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 720 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGreat Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Kazakhstan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Society Is., Tubuai Is., Hawaii, British Columbia, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, New York, Ohio, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Chile Central, Chile North· introduced: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Netherlands
Kew's description“perennial or lithophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker38.958, -0.587 · in the densest population, 621 records (36% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1720 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 671 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 376 km away. 26 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 43 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1720 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Adiantum capillus-venerisAdiantum capillus-venerisAdiantum capillus-venerisAdiantum capillus-venerisAdiantum capillus-venerisAdiantum capillus-venerisAdiantum capillus-venerisAdiantum capillus-veneris

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (6); (c) Rachel Stringham, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Adiantum capillus-veneris, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The evolution of the plastid chromosome in land plants: gene content, gene order, gene function
Susann Wicke, Gerald M. Schneeweiss, Claude W. dePamphilis, Kai Müller (2011) · Plant Molecular Biology
Aquaporins Constitute a Large and Highly Divergent Protein Family in Maize
François Chaumont, François Barrieu, Eva M. Wojcik, Maarten J. Chrispeels (2001) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
From algae to angiosperms–inferring the phylogeny of green plants (Viridiplantae) from 360 plastid genomes
Brad R. Ruhfel, Matthew A. Gitzendanner, Pamela S. Soltis, Pamela S. Soltis (2014) · BMC Evolutionary Biology
Pharmacological Update Properties of Aloe Vera and its Major Active Constituents
Marta Sánchez, Elena González‐Burgos, Irene Iglesias Peinado, M. Pilar Gómez‐Serranillos (2020) · Molecules
The Photocycle of a Flavin-binding Domain of the Blue Light Photoreceptor Phototropin
Trevor E. Swartz, Stephanie B. Corchnoy, John M. Christie, James W. Lewis (2001) · Journal of Biological Chemistry
The Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequence of Pelargonium × hortorum: Organization and Evolution of the Largest and Most Highly Rearranged Chloroplast Genome of Land Plants
Timothy W. Chumley, Jeffrey D. Palmer, Jeffrey P. Mower, H. Matthew Fourcade (2006) · Molecular Biology and Evolution
Biological synthesis of metallic nanoparticles: plants, animals and microbial aspects
Ratul Kumar Das, Vinayak Laxman Pachapur, Linson Lonappan, Mitra Naghdi (2017) · Nanotechnology for Environmental Engineering
Extreme Reconfiguration of Plastid Genomes in the Angiosperm Family Geraniaceae: Rearrangements, Repeats, and Codon Usage
Mary M. Guisinger, Jennifer V. Kuehl, Jeffrey L. Boore, Robert K. Jansen (2010) · Molecular Biology and Evolution
Comparative chloroplast genomics: analyses including new sequences from the angiosperms Nuphar advena and Ranunculus macranthus
Linda A. Raubeson, Rhiannon M. Peery, Timothy W. Chumley, Chris Dziubek (2007) · BMC Genomics
A linear sequence of extant families and genera of lycophytes and ferns
Maarten J. M. Christenhusz, X. C. Zhang, Harald Schneider (2011) · Phytotaxa
Advances in Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering: Innovation and Transformation of Medicine
Kevin Dzobo, Nicholas Ekow Thomford, Dimakatso Alice Senthebane, Hendrina Shipanga (2018) · Stem Cells International

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Adiantum 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 224 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.