Keyed Out #083 — Asplenium nidus

Question 1

Turn a {frond} over: the {spore}-bearing patches stretch into long, unbroken lines that run outward along the side veins, not scattered round dots.

Accepted Answer

spleenwort family

Question 2

The crown and leaf-stalk bases are clothed in thin brown {scales} latticed like stained glass, a mesh of clear little windows framed by dark walls, not dull opaque flakes.

Accepted Answer

Aspleniaceae

Question 3

Its {frond}s spring crowded and spiralling from a single stout, upright rootstock that forms a radial crown, not spaced in two rows along a slender, creeping, flattened {rhizome}.

Accepted Answer

Asplenium

Question 4

Each side vein bears just one {sorus}, its covering flap fixed along a single edge, and the patches sit singly, never doubled up.

Accepted Answer

each vein carries a single one-sided spore-flap

Question 5

Each {frond} is one simple, undivided, glossy strap 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) wide, an unbroken tongue of green, not a lacy blade cut again and again into many fine leaflets.

Accepted Answer

Asplenium nidus

Question 6

Dozens of straps radiate from one crown into an upright, vase-like funnel that traps falling leaves while perched on tree trunks 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 m) up, not a low ground-hugging clump of a few tongue-blades with heart-shaped bases.

Accepted Answer

Asplenium nidus