maidenhair

maid´en`hair`

n.

1.

(Bot.) Any of various small to large terrestrial ferns of the genus Adiantum having very slender graceful stalks and delicate palmately branched fronds, especially (Adiantum pedatum). It is common in the United States, and is sometimes used in medicine. The name is also applied to other species of the same genus, as to the Venus-hair.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

maidenhair - any of various small to large terrestrial ferns of the genus Adiantum having delicate palmately branched fronds maidenhair fern fern - any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores Adiantum, genus Adiantum - cosmopolitan genus of ferns: maidenhair ferns; in some classification systems placed in family Polypodiaceae or Adiantaceae Adiantum capillus-veneris, common maidenhair, southern maidenhair, Venus maidenhair, Venus'-hair fern, Venushair - delicate maidenhair fern with slender shining black leaf stalks; cosmopolitan Adiantum pedatum, American maidenhair fern, five-fingered maidenhair fern - hardy palmately branched North American fern with divergent recurved branches borne on lustrous dark reddish stipes Adiantum bellum, Bermuda maidenhair, Bermuda maidenhair fern - delicate endemic Bermudian fern with creeping rootstock Adiantum tenerum, brittle maidenhair, brittle maidenhair fern - tropical American fern with broad pinnae; widely cultivated