Question

Which plant is described by these clues? The name of its genus comes from an old belief that these plants could heal a soft organ tucked beneath the left lower ribs. Its species name is simply the Latin word for the cupped, twiggy cradle a bird builds to raise its young. It never makes a flower or a seed; instead it scatters dust-fine {spore}s shed from its {frond} undersides. Turn a {frond} over and you find long brown lines of {sori} running outward from the central {midrib}, not scattered round dots. Unusually for its kind, each {frond} is a single undivided strap rather than the lacy, feathery, many-parted blade most of its relatives carry. The glossy, bright-green straps are smooth to the touch, their edges often rippled or crinkled like a wavy ribbon. Its {frond}s spring from a single crown and radiate outward into a funnel-shaped {rosette} that catches falling leaves and debris. In the wild it rarely touches the ground, instead perching high on tree trunks and branches as an {epiphyte} in humid rainforest canopies. Grown indoors it forms a bold clump about 18 to 36 inches (45 to 90 cm) tall and wide, thriving in low light that would starve lacier ferns. Its debris-trapping crown becomes a hanging garden in the treetops, sheltering ants, worms, and even tree-frogs among the slowly rotting litter. In parts of Southeast Asia and the Pacific its tender, unfurling young {frond}s are cooked and eaten as a leafy green vegetable. The brown fuzzy heart of its leaf-funnel looks so like a bird's cradle that its common name simply pairs that cradle with the kind of plant it is.

Accepted Answer

Asplenium nidus

Name That Plant #114