maidenhair fern

maid·en·hair fern  (mdn-hâr)

n.

Any of various ferns of the genus Adiantum, having purplish to black stalks, usually feathery fronds, and delicate fan-shaped leaflets with marginal sori.

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[From the fineness of its stems.]

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maidenhair fern, maidenhair [ˈmeɪd^ənˌhɛə]

n

(Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Plants) any fern of the cosmopolitan genus Adiantum, esp A. capillis-veneris, having delicate fan-shaped fronds with small pale-green leaflets: family Adiantaceae

[so called from the hairlike appearance of its fine fronds]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

maidenhair fern - any of various small to large terrestrial ferns of the genus Adiantum having delicate palmately branched fronds maidenhair 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