Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Dwarf Filmy-fern - Didymoglossum petersii   (A. Gray) Copeland
Members of Hymenophyllaceae:
Only member of Didymoglossum in NC.
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Section 2 » Family Hymenophyllaceae
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Author(A. Gray) Copeland
DistributionSouthern Mountains only, noted from Graham, Macon, Jackson, and Transylvania counties.

This is a Southern fern, in local and disjunct populations. It ranges from southwestern NC west to northern AR, and south to central FL and eastern LA. Also Mex., Guat.
AbundanceRare to locally uncommon. The NCNHP has just over 20 records and thus the reasoning for the S2 rank instead of S1. This is a Significantly Rare species.
HabitatThis fern grows only on vertical rock faces, in humid and sheltered sites, on acidic rocks. It occurs on the drier (but shaded) rock faces in grottoes; it does not grow on damp to wet rock faces such as behind waterfalls or in seepages -- as do some other ferns.
PhenologyFruits from June to August.
IdentificationThis is a tiny, mat-forming species, looking like a liverwort and easy to overlook as a non-vascular plant. Leaves are simple, only about 2/3-inch long and across, on a very slender creeping stem. Leaves are somewhat rounded with some shallow lobes. The other members of the family (Hymenophyllaceae) have divided leaves.
Taxonomic CommentsFormerly named as Trichomanes petersii.

Other Common Name(s)Dwarf Bristle-fern, Peters' Filmy-fern
State RankS2
Global RankG4
State StatusSR-T
US Status
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