Adiantum trapeziforme L.

Diamond Maidenhair

Rhizomes short-creeping, thick. Fronds divided 2-4 times, evergreen. Blades triangular in outline, to 50 cm or more long. Segments trapeziform, to about 5 cm long and 2.5 cm wide with the upper and lateral margins variously lobed and cut. Sori numerous, oblong.

Needs shelter and warmth.

Tropical America

Segments trapeziform and more than 3 cm long. Similar plants occasionally encountered include: A. cultratum Hook. from West Indies, S America and Mexico, and A. peruvianum Klotzsch, Silver Dollar Fern, also from Tropical America. The former differs mainly in having thicker rhizomes and the latter in having the segment margins more shallowly and evenly cut, and the tip more blunt and rounded. Adiantum pentadactylon Langsd. & Fisch. from Brazil, S & C America, and Mexico is similar to A. trapeziforme but the segments are more deeply cut with thinner lobing, fewer veins and the colour of the segment stalk extending into the blade while A. anceps Maxon & Morton from Ecuador and Peru has segments more or less ovate.

Source: Spencer, R. (1995). Adiantaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

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kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Polypodiopsida
order     Polypodiales
family      Pteridaceae
genus       Adiantum L.