Spotted this little fella just after the violet. It's growing in a crack in the wall by a main road. So on one hand it's not particularly fussy; but on the other it only seems to grow in cracks in walls and rocks. Hence its common and latin names: wall rue, or Asplenium ruta-muraria. There are other wall-dwellers too, like ivy-leaved toadflax. What is it about their biology that means they only survive in such a restricted niche? There are names for plants that live on rocks: epipetric, epilithic or lithophytic. Certainly worth trying to slip one into a conversation if you can.
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