Asplenium scolopendrium
English: Hart’s tongue; Hart's-tongue fern; Hearts tongue fern.
Name: hart being an adult male red deer; scolopendrium is Latin for centipede.
French: Scolopendre.
Clades: Phyllitioideae; Aspleniaceae, Aspleniidae; Pteridophyta; Plants.
Synonym: Phyllitis scolopendrium; Scolopendrium vulgare.
Region: Northern Hemisphere, Europe, North America; temperate zones of Eurasia; north Africa, Moroco to Libya; eastern N. America.
Habitat: moist banks and walls; rocks in damp shady places in woodlands; on lime-rich soils; hardy to about -30°c; prefers a light sandy soil, rich in leaf-mould, well-drained, humus-rich, chalky; on drystone walls; grows well in heavy clay soils; prefers a shady position up to 3 hours sunlight a day; succeeds in dry shade; very adaptable plant.
Content: thiaminase, destroys vitamin B complex; tannins; flavonoids, kampferol; mucilage; saccharose; carcinogens.
Use: medicine; cosmetic, hair conditioner; ornamental, ground cover in shade; food, when cooked.
Botany
Identification: ferns with simple, undivided fronds.
Fern; evergreen; 45 cm tall.
Root: short, ascending rhizome.
Leaves: in clusters erect to arching; up to 50 cm long; simple, undivided; tongue-shaped; dark green and luxuriant in shade, stunted and yellowish in full sun;.
Sori: in rows, perpendicular to the rachis, reminiscent of a centipede's legs; 10 to 60 cm long, 3 to 6 cm broad.
Taxonomy
A global phylogeny of Asplenium published in 2020 divided the genus into eleven clades.