Ferns of wall and rock
asplenium
say a-SPLEE-nee-um
Asplenium trichomanes
Nine hundred or so species of small ferns, most of them living in cracks. The name is the reason English calls the family spleenworts, and the four syllables run past quickly enough that the middle one tends to vanish.
What it is
The plant
Asplenium trichomanes is maidenhair spleenwort: a rosette of narrow fronds with a black wiry midrib and small round leaflets, growing out of mortar joints, limestone and old walls. The specific name trichomanes is Greek for hair, for the same midrib.
Why
Why the letters and the sound disagree
Greek asplenon, from a- meaning not and splen meaning spleen. The plant was prescribed for disorders of the spleen, which is also how English arrived at the name spleenwort. Botanical Latin added -ium and left everything else alone, so the word is a Greek medical claim with a Latin ending on it.
Recorded
Spellings people arrive at
- asplenniuma doubled consonantOne n. The fern is asplenium.
- aspleneumthe endingThe ending is -ium, not -eum.
- asplenumthe endingasplenum is the word with a syllable missing.
- aspleniaman unstressed vowelasplenium ends in -ium.
- asplaniuman unstressed vowelasplenium, with an e in the middle.
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