Appalachian Rockcap Fern is a small, mat-forming evergreen fern of the eastern United States and Canada, one of those quietly remarkable plants that turns a bare rock face into something green and alive. It grows from a creeping rhizome, reaching about a foot in height and spread, with fronds widest at their base, a detail that distinguishes it from the very similar Polypodium virginianum. In the Smoky Mountains, it takes on an epiphytic habit, colonizing moss-covered rocks and tree roots in deep shade. The dense mats it forms help anchor organic material on otherwise bare, rocky surfaces.

This fern asks for moist, well-drained, acidic soil and shade, and it is genuinely sensitive to summer heat, performing best where temperatures stay relatively cool. In the garden it works beautifully along rock slopes, tucked into shaded stone walls, or beneath a canopy of native trees as part of a woodland planting. It is deer resistant and attracts songbirds. The fronds remain evergreen through winter, providing welcome structure when the rest of the shade garden has gone dormant.