Maidenhair fern
Adiantum raddianum
- Wants
- Medium
- Tolerates
- Bright indirect down to low
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Pets
- Safe
Why it wants that
Its fronds are one cell layer thin and membranous - built for a shaded, saturated rock face - so they have neither the pigment to cope with a sunbeam nor the reserves to idle in deep gloom.
Too little light
The clump loses vitality: new fronds come thin and sparse, old ones are not replaced, and the plant thins out instead of filling its pot.
Too much
The pinnules bleach and then crisp brown from the edge inward - NCSU lists sunburn among its problems - and whole fronds die back to the wiry black stalk.