maidenhair fern, Adiantum pedatum

The artfully arching fronds of maidenhair fern make it one of everyone's favorites. After all, we all like the plants that we can easily and accurately identify. And then we use them for medicine or food. Maidenhair fern was used by many native people for a variety of ailments even though it really doesn't do much. I would speculate that if you gobble a bunch of maidenhair when your stomach is upset, the main effect would be to displace whatever else it was that you shouldn't have eaten. But it's easy to find and you would know for sure what you were getting. Maidenhair grows mostly in rich woodlands in AK, AL, AR, CT, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV, NB, NS, ON, and QC. Lenawee Co MI, 9/11/13. Maidenhair fern family, Pteridaceae.