Asplenium adiantum-nigrum
Asplenium adiantum-nigrum is a common species of fern known by the common name black spleenwort. It is found mostly in Africa, Europe, and Eurasia, but is also native to a few locales in Mexico and the United States.
Description
This spleenwort has thick, triangular leaf blades up to long which are divided into several subdivided segments. It is borne on a reddish green petiole and the rachis is shiny and slightly hairy. The undersides of each leaf segment have one or more sori arranged in chains.Taxonomy
Linnaeus was the first to describe black spleenwort with the binomial Asplenium adiantum-nigrum in his Species Plantarum of 1753.A chloroplast phylogeny verified the allopolyploid origin of A. adiantum-nigrum, with A. cuneifolium supplying the paternal genome and A. onopteris the maternal genome.
Native distribution
;Africa- Northern and Southern Africa in: Algeria; Lesotho; Morocco; the provinces of South Africa including Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, and Western Cape; and Tunisia.
- Western Asia and Central Asia in - the Caucasus; Azerbaijan; Cyprus; the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt; Kyrgyzstan; Ciscaucasia and Dagestan in Russia; and Turkey.
- Albania; Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; the Czech Republic; Denmark; Finland; France ; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Ireland; Italy ; the Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal, Romania; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Ukraine ; the United Kingdom; and in the Balkan Peninsula
- Macaronesian archipelagoes of: the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands.
;Oceania
In Hawaii, this native fern grows on cinder cones and lava flows, and it is present in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.