What kind of fern is this?

Brownville, NY(Zone 4a)

...found at a Walmart, so it's got to be fairly common...

The "fronds" are more like the same texture and color of a bird's nest fern, but they are cut the same basic shape of regular ferns (please bear with my terrible description, I can't use the company dig cam to take a pic!) Anyways, and the growth is like that of the rabbit's or bear's foot/paw fern, with a creeping rhizome (did I get that right?) - but it's bare, no hair there (hee hee). Overall height of the plant is about 10", and it's been sucking up water like there's no tomorrow!

Nan - you were the fern fanatic, weren't you? If you can help me out, I'll send you a chunk, it's a pretty good sized plant!

Petaluma, CA

It could be another kind of Asplenium (Bird's nest fern is A.nidus). There are a few Aspleniums, the other we see most is the A.bulbiferum or Mother fern, which grows little plantlets on its lacy foliage when mature.

I'm by no means a fern expert, but I know who is! Run, do not walk, to your nearest library and look for the book called "The Encyclopaedia of Ferns" by David Jones. Note the spelling--I thought my library didn't have it, but I'd spelled Encyclopaedia the American way, not the British way. It is a gorgeous book, full of cultivation information, lots of pictures, info on indoor and outdoor ferns, etc. I identified most of my ferns (tentatively, at least) using the photos in this book. And someday, when I have an extra $50 laying around, I'm going to hop on over to Amazon.com and buy my very own copy. Hope this helps,
Emily

SW, WI(Zone 4b)

Hey Bucky! Yeah, I'm a 'fern fanatic'...as you say! It sounds like one of the polypodiums to me...maybe scolopendria or mandianum? They're sometimes called Phlebodiums, too. Here's a link to a pic of scolopendria...which this site has given yet another name...phymatodes scolopendria?! Key words here are 'completely lacking hairs'....
http://www.cassiakeyensis.com/sofl_plants/fern_phymatodes_scolopendria.html

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