Hart's-tongue - Phyllitis scolopendrium

Unique amongst British ferns in having strap-shaped, evergreen, undivided leaves. It is a tufted plant with fronds 10 to 60 cm long and 3 to 6 cm wide, rich, glossy green above with stems up to half the length of the leaf blade. Sori are linear 1 to 3 cm long borne in pairs.

Damp and shady places, woods, hills and banks, walls and rocks.

All year round but spores ripen July and August.

Perennial and evergreen.

Frequent throughout most of Britain except Northern Scotland.

Fairly frequent in damp shady places in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 76 of the 617 tetrads.