{"id":15163,"date":"2023-08-10T06:39:20","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T06:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mustila.fi\/kasvit\/asplenium_scolopendrium_hart_s_tongue_fern\/"},"modified":"2024-02-02T14:47:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T14:47:53","slug":"aspleniumscolopendrium","status":"publish","type":"kasvit","link":"https:\/\/mustila.fi\/en\/plants\/aspleniumscolopendrium\/","title":{"rendered":"Asplenium scolopendrium – hart’s tongue (fern)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hart\u2019s tongue is a fern of the spleenwort (Asplenium<\/em>) genus. Finland has five native spleenwort species but hart\u2019s tongue is native to central and southern Europe. It has handsome shiny green, narrow and wavy-edged leaves, their shape being reflected in the common name.<\/p>\n

When conditions are suitable, with sufficient moisture and good rich soil, the slow-growing hart\u2019s tongue can produce handsome rosettes. It also grows in rock hollows, but less luxuriantly and smaller. At Mustila the species grows on the sides of moist ditches.<\/p>\n

To many, hart\u2019s tongue might be more familiar as an indoor plant, as it is not often grown in Suomi gardens. In Victorian Britain ferns were fashionable and separate greenhouses, called ferneries, were built for them. Hart\u2019s tongue is an old medicinal herb, mentioned as early as the 1400s. The scientific name Asplenium comes from the Greek, meaning \u201cwithout spleen\u201d, and extracts were used to prevent blockage of the spleen, on the basis that the spore-cases were spleen-shaped.<\/p>\n