After six failures to launch, we’ve finally succeeded in growing one of the most fascinating of our native ferns, Asplenium rhizophyllum (formerly Camptosorous rhizophyllus). Known by the common name of walking fern, the long frond tip of this tiny fern, roots into the organic debris or moss everywhere it touches, forming a new plant. If you try to grow this in the ground in garden soil, as we have done previously, it will almost certainly die, since it is what’s known as a lithophyte. Lithophytes prefer to grow on rocks. Where I’ve seen it in the wild, it almost always grows on moss-covered rocks, with the moss covering the fern roots. We finally paid proper attention to our plant siting, and have been rewarded with thriving plants.
