The spleenwort (Asplenium onopteris [= A. adiantum-nigrum ssp. onopteris]) is a medium size fern with a delicated cut, triangular shape fronds which are hold by a long petiole of black colour when near the root. The speenwort grows in the dark, humid holm-oak forests, mainly close to the holm-oak trunks or on rocks, often together with another fern, the polypody. In Bages, the spleenwort is frequent into the evergreen oak forests in Montserrat and Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac where the lime of the soil has been drained. Its former common name of black spleenwort is now restricted to the similar species A.adiantum nigrum ssp.adiantum-nigrum, with narrow fronds as shorter petiole, that grows on the siliceous rocks in the Pyrenees. [photo Florenci Vallès]