Alice's fern
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Of unclear origin. Seemingly first mentioned in a letter written in November 1900 and published in January 1901 in Fern Bulletin, in which William R. Maxon describes its sale in Washington, DC, by "old negro women [...among whom] it goes altogether by the name of 'Alice's fern,' a new one, perhaps, to most fern students". In September 1901, her father's rise to the US presidency made Alice Roosevelt Longworth a celebrity and Alice blue was named for her, but in 1900 she was not so prominent.
Noun[edit]
Alice's fern (plural Alice's ferns)
- Synonym of American climbing fern (Lygodium palmatum)