Adiantum atroviride (A Maidenhair Fern)

Very similar to A. aethiopicum, from which it differs in the scales on the rhizomes (underground runners): triangular, dark brown, more or less opaque with shortly hairy margins, not spirally curled in atroviride and thin, yellow, broadly triangular, lacking marginal hairs and often spirally curled in aethiopicum. Recorded from north and central coasts and coule be present but overlooked on the south coast.

This species occurs rarely in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, but is common on the east coast of Australia, from the Torres Strait all the way to southeastern New South Wales. It is a terrestrial fern inhabiting dry to medium dry vine forest and sclerophyll forest on a variety of soils.