Adiantum jordanii is a perennial species of maidenhair fern, in the Vittarioideae subfamily of the Pteridaceae. The species is known by the common name California maidenhair.U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2009
It is native to California and Baja California. A. jordanii is found in the southernmost part of its range in Baja California with such flora associates as Mimulus aridus and Daucus pusillus.C. Michael Hogan. 2008
Each trailing leaf may reach over half a meter in length and is made up of many rounded green segments. Each segment has two to four lobes and it may split between the lobes,Jepson Manual. 1993 the underside of each segment bearing one to four sori.
Adiantum jordanii is a carrier of the fungus-like oomycete, Phytophthora ramorum, which causes Sudden Oak Death. The USDA enforces an import control, focusing intensely on areas (CA, OR, NY in U.S.) that are infected with Sudden Oak death. When sold, they must be identified by place of origin and must also be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate. The USDA warns to not take cuttings from wild specimens.U.S.D.A. Import Control Notice
Adiantum jordanii, from native plant nurseries, is used in native plant and wildlife gardens.
Uses Ohlone people used the plant as a decoction to treat stomach ailments, as a blood purifier, for "pain below the shoulders", and to aid placental expulsion. In the early 1900s, it was reported that in Salinan land, indigenous people boiled the plant into a tea and consumed it to aid difficult childbirths, induce menstruation, stop hemorrhage, and for the liver.
Culture Following the colonization of California, A. jordanii came to be known by the Spanish name , a diminutive of culantro. Its use by Californios in blood disorders and menstrual regulation is similar to the use of the related A. capillus-veneris, also called , which Cephas L. Bard described as a practice introduced to California from the rest of Mexico. As a medicinal plant, it forms a part of the ethnobotany of indigenous people in its range, including Ohlone, Salinan, and possibly Chumash people. is one of the herbs whose uses by indigenous Californians were documented and compiled in the early 1900s by Andreu Garriga, a parish priest who administered the then abandoned San Antonio de Padua Mission.
References
Further reading C. Michael Hogan. 2008. Coastal Woodfern (Dryopteris arguta), GlobalTwitcher, ed. N. Stromberg Jepson Manual. 1993. Adiantum jordanii, University of California, Berkeley U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2009. USDA Plants Profile: Adiantum jordanii U.S.D.A. Import Control Notice. Import prohibited plants and areas related to sudden oak death
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