Alice's fern

Meanings

1. Synonym of American climbing fern (Lygodium palmatum)

Etymology

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.