Asplenium

noun

in some classification systems placed in family Polypodiaceae

• Syn: ↑genus Asplenium

• Hypernyms: ↑fern genus

• Member Holonyms: ↑Aspleniaceae, ↑family Aspleniaceae

• Member Meronyms:

↑spleenwort, ↑bird's nest fern, ↑Asplenium nidus, ↑hart's-tongue, ↑hart's-tongue fern, ↑Asplenium scolopendrium, ↑Phyllitis scolopendrium, ↑scale fern, ↑scaly fern, ↑Asplenium ceterach, ↑Ceterach officinarum

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\\-_əm\ noun

Usage: capitalized

Etymology: New Latin, alteration of Latin asplenum spleenwort, from Greek asplēnon, irregular from splēn spleen — more at spleen

: a widely distributed genus of ferns (family Polypodiaceae) having linear or oblong sori borne obliquely on the upper side of a veinlet and comprising the spleenworts — see ebony spleenwort, wall rue

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asplenium /a-splēˈni-əm/

noun

Spleenwort, any fern of a widely-distributed genus of ferns, Asplenium, with long or linear sori whose indusia arise from a vein (eg wall rue)

ORIGIN: Gr asplēnon, (literally) spleenless, from a- (privative), and splēn spleen, reputedly a cure for spleen

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asplenium

Bot.: see spleenwort.