Asplenium × wherryi

Asplenium × wherryi, known as Wherry's spleenwort, is a rare hybrid fern of the Appalachian Mountains.

First collected by Edgar T. Wherry in 1935, it was largely ignored until a new colony was found in 1961, and the species was named in his honor.

They were following up on an American Fern Society field trip that had located A. bradleyi (and A. montanum) in a cliff 4.5 miles (7.2 km) northwest of Blairstown, New Jersey.

Wherry and Trudell found additional individuals of A. bradleyi, as well as a colony of the hybrid between the two species.

× wherryi might be found anywhere the ranges of its parental species overlap, stretching down the Appalachian Mountains from New York to Georgia and in the Shawnee Hills of Indiana and Kentucky.

× wherryi is found growing in narrow crevices in acidic rocks, such as quartzite[3] or sandstone.