English: Marginated half net fern; Rustyback fern; Scale Fern.
Synonym: Ceterach officinarum;
Hemidictyum marginatum; Hemidictyum ceterach; Rustyback fern; Ceterach Willdenow.
Name: Asplenium, form greek meaning spleen; Hemidictyum was derived from the terms hemi (half) and diktyon (net).
Region: Eurasia, Britain to Spain to Caucasus, central Asia, Pakistan; Africa, Macaronesia, north Africa to Egypt, Levant
Habitat: limestone rocks; mortared walls, old brick walls; dry rock crevices; elevations up to 2600; prefers moist alkaline soil, freely draining, calcicole; tolerates full sun, prefers part-day shade, grows in deep shade.
Content: carcinogens; thiaminase.
Use: medicine; ornamental.
BotanyFern; evergreen; 15 cm tall.
Root: short and erect or spreading rhizome.
Leaves: in clusters; up to 20 cm long, 5 cm wide; rolling up when very dry into a tube shape, unrolling when moistured; pinnatipartite; submarginally anastomosing veins; veins netted only half-way across the pinnules; dense, abaxial scale covering.
TaxonomyStudies have shown that Ceterach consists of two separate clades both nested within
Aspleniaceae and not meriting generic status