Asplenium scolopendrium Undulatum Group - Hart's Tongue Fern

Asplenium scolopendrium Undulatum Group is a fern of great ornamental value. It is a particularly compact form of the species known as Hart's Tongue Fern, with shorter fronds and intense undulations along the edges. This very hardy variety forms a persistent clump with a slightly arching habit, composed of large, shiny, light green leaves that are very bright in shaded areas and during the gloomy days of winter. It appreciates the lively coolness of undergrowth and the beneficial proximity of water sources, as well as the silent company of old stones with which it forms a perfect marriage.

The Hart's Tongue Fern is a perennial fern belonging to the Asplenium family, native to North America, Europe, and Asia. It can be found growing on limestone soils of shaded mountain slopes, ravines, scree, or along watercourses at altitudes below 1800 m (5900 ft), or even inside old wells or in the remnants of shaded buildings. The Hart's Tongue Fern is locally protected. Its vernacular name of "Hart's Tongue" is due to the resemblance of its long ribbon-like fronds to the tongue of a deer.

Anchored by a short and thick rhizome, covered with brown-red scales, Asplenium scolopendrium 'Undulatum Group' will form a clump that is about 30 cm (12 in) tall and wide, which persists in winter. Its fronds, shorter than those of the type species, also have much more pronounced undulations that are almost frizzy. They are carried by brown and hairy petioles that bear dark scales, brown to black at the base. The reproductive cells (sori) are arranged on the underside of the fronds: they are large, linear, parallel to each other, and obliquely oriented relative to the rachis; they resemble a type of centipede, which has earned the plant its evocative name of scolopendrium.

The Hart's Tongue Fern is superb in rockeries or on slopes under tree cover, in shaded borders, but always in well-drained soil. This peculiar fern easily establishes itself in a few centimetres (about an inch) of compost, clinging between the stones of a rocky scree bordering a small waterfall. But its bright foliage makes it even more precious in winter, when it covers a wall of old mossy stones, lines the interior of an ancient well, or cascades down a terraced garden. It excels among ivies, periwinkles, brunneras, dead nettles, and the humble fragrant coltsfoot, which will accompany it with fragrance, foliage, or delicate flowering, completely in contrast to its luxuriance.