Aspleniaceae (05)

The spleenwort family in Belgium:
Ferns belong to a group of primitive plants which appeared on Earth even before the dinosaurs. They made the change from water to land plants. Ferns are spore producing plants without the colour and splendour we know from flowering plants, still beloved both in gardens as indoors. In nature, they mostly prefer moist, relatively shady places. The Aspleniaceae or spleenwort family is one of the largest fern families; they are characterized by having their sori (the “fruits”) forming a straight line on the underside of the leaves. Nine native species of Asplenium are known in Belgium, of which one is meanwhile extinct. The most common species are the wall-rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria) and maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) which sometimes occur together for instance on walls.

The Belgian Herbarium:
The Botanic Garden Meise holds the largest herbarium collection of Belgian plant specimens. Each of these herbarium specimens has a label with valuable information such as the plant’s identification, and when, where, and who collected the plant. These specimens can be used in many domains of research, such as conservation, evolution, ecology and systematics. These data help us to better understand the plants of Belgium, their history and that of people who collected them. There are about 200,000 specimens in the Belgian Herbarium of the Botanic Garden Meise and we want to document them all! These data will then be made available online at www.botanicalcollections.be.

Keywords (Latin):
Belgium, Aspleniaceae, Filices, Hortus Botanicus Meise, Botanica.