rare spleenwort

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Lynne and Bod Davis have a nose for odd plants. And this one is a beauty. Last Saturday they went with me on my Ijams Walk•About to River Bluff and found this oddity, a fern: Wall-rue spleenwort.

Lynne emailed, "On page 67 of Ferns of the Smokies author Murray Evans says, 'Status and Habitat: Rare, at low elevations, on shaded limestone ledges and crevices. The Mountain Spleenwort is the common spleenwort of this pair in the Smokies, so the wall-rue would be a special find in a special place.'

"I think, for this book, the status is specific to the Smokies, so it might not be considered a rare plant in general. I noticed that a number of the references I got from my Internet search were from Europe, so it might be fairly widespread, but just rare in the Smokies, perhaps because of its preference for limestone.

"But enough dithering! It was a cool plant and I had never seen it before."

Indeed.

Thanks, Lynne

Walkabouters who attended last Saturday's

Ijams Walk•About to River Bluff

View from River Bluff

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