Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta (Filicophyta)
Class: Pteridopsida (Filicopsida)
Subclass: Filicinae
Order: Aspleniales
Family: Aspleniaceae
Genus: Asplenium

Asplenium ruta-muraria var. cryptolepis

Common name: wall-rue

(Drawing from How to Know the Ferns by Frances Parsons)

The wall-rue is a calciphile, that is, it prefers to grow in basic soil, and so it does on limestone rock. It will only grow on hard, highly-weathered limestone, however, and the more exposed, the better, it would seem. It may be found in old limestone masonry at times, hence its name, wall-rue, the rue part coming from its fancied resemblance to that plant.

The wall-rue looks kind of like a very simplified version of the mountain spleenwort, A. montanum, with modified dichotomous branching of the frond so that it does not have a true pinnate arrangement.

This fern may be grown in the garden with care.

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This page was last revised on 11-20-1997.