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Walking Fern
Asplenium rhizophyllum (Camptosorus rhizophyllus)
Walking fern has very unfernlike fronds. When the tips touch moist ground, a new fern can grow; the fern thus "walks" across the ground.
• Family: Aspleniaceae
• Habitat: shaded limestone, moss-covered outcrops
• Height: fronds 6-12 inches long
• Location of spores: scattered over undersurface of leaflets (see second photo)
• Stipe (leaf stalk): green and smooth above, dark and scaly at the base
• Growth pattern: random
• Persistence: evergreen
Underside of a frond, showing the sori (spore-bearing structures). They look randomly placed, but each one follows a leaf vein.