The Fern Bluff MUD hosts a beautiful bluff on Hairy Man Road (County Road 174) which is home to the Maidenhair Fern. This bluff is responsible for the naming of the Fern Bluff MUD, the Fern Bluff Neighborhood and the Fern Bluff Elementary School.
The Maidenhair Fern, “Adiantum capillus-veneris,” is characterized by the thin and polished, black colored main leaf stalk with fan-like leaflets which are held up by the stalks and are as fine as human hair. The bluff is the ideal environment for Maidenhair Fern because it is damp and shaded with an abundance of limestone in the soil. The fern has a water repelling compound on its leaves which keeps its foliage completely dry, even when submerged under water, which is were it gets the Greek name, Adiantum, or “unwetted.”
