Adiantum capillus-veneris (black maidenhair fern)

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Adiantum capillus-veneris, photographed by Daniel Cahen — fig. a Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205535072

Adiantum capillus-veneris, photographed by Naturalista — fig. b Naturalista, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204625672

Adiantum capillus-veneris, photographed by Reid Hardin — fig. c Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200670842

Adiantum capillus-veneris, photographed by Julien Lepage — fig. d Julien Lepage, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199065059

Adiantum capillus-veneris, photographed by Annika Lindqvist — fig. e Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202607987

Adiantum capillus-veneris, photographed by Quentin Groom — fig. f Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / obs. 198075699

Adiantum capillus-veneris, photographed by Josep Gesti — fig. g Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 197575520

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Adiantum jordaniithis one called it 3x compare

Also published as 50 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

Adiantum affine Willd.
Adiantum africanum R.Br.
Adiantum australe Riddell
Adiantum capillaceum Dulac
Adiantum capillus Sw.
Adiantum capillus-veneris f. cristatum Moxley
Adiantum capillus-veneris f. fissum (Christ) Ching
Adiantum capillus-veneris f. rimicola (Sloss.) Fernald
Adiantum capillus-veneris subsp. trifidum (Willd. ex Bolle) Rivas Mart., Lousã, J.C.Costa & Maria C.Duarte
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. capillus-veneris
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. daphnites W.Bull
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. dissectum (B.K.Nayar) Ching
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. dissectum B.K.Nayar
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. fissum Christ
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. grande Pynaert
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. imbricatum Pynaert
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. kenyense Chiov.
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. laciniatum Christ ex Tardieu & C.Chr.
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. magnificum W.Bull
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. modestum (Underw.) Fernald
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. pinnata Bonap.
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. polyhymnia Lowe
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. protrusum Fernald
Adiantum capillus-veneris var. rimicola (Sloss.) Fernald

and 26 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.